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AMERICAN • BOOK • GOMRANY i^ 



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Grand Canyon. 



Frontispiece. 



ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 



STORIES OF 



AMERICAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE 



THIRD READER GRADE 



BY 



EDWARD EGGLESTON 

Author of "Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans," "A First Book 

in -fmerican History," and "A History of the United States 

and its People for the Use of Schools " 



o>*;c 



NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



.3 



Copyright, 1895, by 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANV 



EGGL. AMER. LIFE 
W. P. 15 



i-^7^^ 



^0'l' 




PREFACE. 



This book is intended to serve three main purposes. 

One of these is to make school reading pleasant by supplying 
matter simple and direct in style, and sufficiently interesting and 
exciting to hold the reader's attention in a state of constant 
wakefulness ; that is, to keep the mind in the condition in which 
instruction can be received with the greatest advantage. 

A second object is to cultivate an interest in narratives of fact 
by selecting chiefly incidents full of action, such as are attractive 
to the minds of boys and girls whose pulses are yet quick with 
youthful life. The early establishment of a preference for stories 
of this sort is the most effective antidote to the prevalent vice of 
reading inferior fiction for mere stimulation. 

But the principal aim of this book is to make the reader 
acquainted with American life and manners in other times. The 
history of life has come to be esteemed of capital importance, 
but it finds, as yet, small place in school instruction. The stories 
and sketches in this book relate mainly to earlier times and 
to conditions very different from those of our own day. They 
will help the pupil to apprehend the life and spirit of our fore- 
fathers. Many of them are such as make him acquainted with 
that adventurous pioneer life, which thus far has been the 
largest element in our social history, and which has given to 

5 



the national character the traits of quick-wittedness, humor, self- 
rehance, love of liberty, and democratic feeling. These traits in 
combination distinguish us from other peoples. 

Stories such as these here told of Indian life, of frontier peril 
and escape, of adventures with the pirates and kidnappers o( 
colonial times, of daring Revolutionary feats, of dangerous whaling 
voyages, of scientific exploration, and of personal encounters with 
savages and wild beasts, have become the characteristic folklore 
of America. Books of history rarely know them, but they are 
history of the highest kind, — the quintessence of an age that 
has passed, or that is swiftly passing away, forever. With them 
are here intermingled sketches of the homes, the food and 
drink, the dress and manners, the schools and children's plays, 
of other times. The text-book of history is chiefly busy with 
the great events and the great personages of history : this book 
seeks to make the young American acquainted with the daily life 
and character of his forefathers. In connection with the author's 
" Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans," it is intended 
to form an introduction to the study of our national history. 

It has been thought desirable to make the readings in this book 
cover in a general way the whole of our vast country. The North 
and the South, the Atlantic seaboard, the Pacific slope, and the 
great interior basin of the continent, are alike represented in 
these pages. 



CONTENTS. 



A White Boy among the Indians 

The Making of a Canoe 

Some Things about Indian Corn 

Some Women in the Indian Wars 

The Coming of Tea and Coffee 

Kidnapped Boys .... 

The Last Battle of Blackbeard 

An Old Philadelphia School 

A Dutch Family in the Revolution 

A School of Long Ago 

Stories of Whaling . 

A Whaling Song . 

A Strange Escape 

Grandmother Bear 

The Great Turtle 

The Rattlesnake God . 

Witchcraft in Louisiana 

A Story of Niagara 

Among the Alligators 

Jasper .... 

Song of Marion's Men 

A Brave Girl 

A Prisoner among the Indians 

Hungry Times in the Woods 



PAGE 

9 
14 
21 
26 
31 
Z7 
48 

52 
54 
59 
66 

74 
76 

79 
83 
87 
90 

97 

lOI 

104 
107 
108 
no 

116 



Scouwa becomes a White Man again 
A Baby Lost in the Woods . 
Elizabeth Zane . . . . , 
The River Pirates . . » . 
Old-fashioned Telegraphs , » 

A Boy's Foolish Adventure - 
A Foot Race for Life 
Loretto and his Wife 
A Blackfoot Story . „ , . 
How Fremont crossed the Mountains 
Finding Gold in California 
Descending the Grand Canyon 
The-Man-that-draws-the-Handcart . 
The Lazy, Lucky Indian 

Peter Petersen 

The Greatest of Telescope Makers 
Adventures in Alaska 





PAGB 


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121 


• • 


. 122 


• 


128 


• 


■ 133 


. 


137 


. 


. 147 


. 


152 


> 


. . 158 




. 163 


> 


. 166 


- 


171 




. . 178 


. 


. 183 




. 191 




194 


« 


. 201 


i J 


207 



STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND 
ADVENTURE. 

A WHITE BOY AMONG THE INDIANS. 

Among the people that came to Virginia in 1609. 
two years after the colony was planted, was a boy 
named Henry Spelman. He was the son of a well- 
known man. He had been a bad and troublesome 
boy in England, and his family sent him to Vir- 
ginia, thinking that he might be better in the new 
country. At least his friends thought he would 
not trouble them so much when he was so far away. 

Many hundreds of people came at the same time 
that Henry Spelman did. Captain John Smith was 
then governor of the little colony. He was puzzled 
to know how to feed all these people. As many of 
them were troublesome, he was still more puzzled 
to know how to govern them. 

In order not to have so many to feed, he sent 
some of them to live among the Indians here and 
there. A chief called Little Powhatan asked Smith 
to send some of his men to live with him. The 

9 



lO 



Indians wanted to get the white men to live among 
them, so as to learn to make the things that the 
white men had. Captain Smith agreed to give the 
boy Henry Spelman to Little Powhatan, if the chief 
would give him a place to plant a new settlement. 

Spelman staid awhile with the chief, and then he 
went back to the English at Jamestown. 

But when he came to Jamestown he was sorry 
that he had not staid among the Indians. Cap- 
tain John Smith had gone home to England. 
George Percy was now governor of the English. 
They had very little food to eat, and Spelman began 
to be afraid that he might starve to death with the 
rest of them. Powhatan — not Little Powhatan, 
but the great Powhatan, who was chief over all the 
other chiefs in the neighborhood — sent a white 
man who was living with him to carry some deer 
meat to Jamestown. When it came time for this 
white man to go back, he asked that some of his 
countrymen might go to the Indian country with 
him. The governor sent Spelman, who was glad 
enough to go to the Indians again, because they 
had plenty of food to eat. 

Three weeks after this, Powhatan sent Henry 
Spelman back to Jamestown to say to the English, 
that if they would come to his country, and bring 
him some copper, he would give them some corn for 



tl 

it. The Indians at this time had no iron, and what 
Httle copper they had they bought from other Indi- 
ans, who probably got it from the copper mines far 
away on Lake Superior. 

The Enghsh greatly needed corn, so they took 
a boat and went up to the Indian country with 
copper, in order to buy corn. They quarreled with 
the Indians about the measurement of the corn. 
The Indians hid themselves near the water, and, 
while the white men were carrying the corn on their 
vessel, the Indians killed some of them. About 
this time, seeing that the white men were so hun- 
gry, the Indians began to hope that they would be 
able to drive them all out of the country. 

Powhatan saved Spelman from being killed by 
the Indians ; but, now that the Indians were at war 
with the white men, who were shut up in James- 
town without food, they wished to kill all the white 
people in the country. 

Spelman and a Dutchman, who also lived with 
Powhatan, began to be afraid that he would not 
protect them any longer. So, when a chief of the 
Potomac Indians visited Powhatan, and asked the 
Dutchman and the boy to go to his country, they 
left Powhatan and went back with them. Powhatan 
sent messengers after them, who killed the Dutch- 
man. Henry Spelman ran away into the woods. 



12 

Powhatan's men followed him, but the Potomacs 
got hold of Powhatan's men, and held them back 
until Spelman could get away. The boy managed 
at last to get to the country of the Potomac Indians. 

It was very lucky for Spelman that he was among 
the Indians at this time. Nearly all the white 
people in Jamestown were killed, or died of hunger. 
Spelman lived among the Indians for years. Dur- 
ing this time more people came from England, and 
settled at Jamestown. A ship from Jamestown 
came up into the Potomac River to trade. The 
captain of the ship bought Spelman from the Indi- 
ans. He was now a young man, and, as he could 
speak both the Indian language and the English, 
he was very useful in carrying on trade between the 
white men and the Indians. 

At the time that Henry Spelman first went 
among the Indians, they had no iron tools except a 
very few that they had bought of the white people. 
They had no guns, nor knives, nor hatchets. They 
had no hoes nor axes. They made their tools out 
of hard wood, shells, stones, deer horns, and other 
such things. They had not yet bought blankets 
from the white men, but made their clothes mostly 
out of the skins of animals. 

JThe Indians could not learn much about the 
white man's arts from Spelman, because he did not 



13 

know much. Besides, he had no iron of which to 
make tools. He learned to make arrows of cane 
such as we use for fishing rods. He also learned 
to point his arrows with the spur of a wild turkey, 
or a piece of stone. These arrow points he stuck 
into the arrow with a kind of glue. But he first 
had to learn how to make his glue out of deers' 
horns. Before he could make any of the tools, 
he had to make himself a knife, as the Indians did. 
Having no iron, the blade of his knife was made 
out of a beaver's tooth, which is very sharp, and 
will cut wood. He set this tooth in the end of a 
stick. You see how hard it was for an Indian to 
get tools. He had to learn to make one tool in 
order to use that in making another tool. 

One of the principal things that an Indian had 
■to do was to make a canoe ; for, as the Indians had 
no horses, they could travel only by water, unless 
they went afoot. Canoes were the only boats they 
had. They had to make canoes without any of the 
tools that white men use. Let us explain this by 
a story about Henry and an Indian boy. The 
things in the story may not have happened just 
as they are told, but the account of how things are 
made by the Indians is all true. 



14 



THE MAKING OF A CANOE. 

Henry had a young Indian friend whose name 
was Keketaw. One day Keketaw said to him, 
*' Let us go into the woods and make a canoe." 

" If we had an ax to cut down the trees," said the 
white boy, " or an adz, such as they have at James- 
town, or if we could get a hatchet, we might make 
a canoe ; but we have not even a Httle knife." 

" We will make a canoe in the Indian way," said 
Keketaw. " I will show you how. Let us get 
ready." 

" What shall we do to get ready ? " asked Henry. 

" We must take our bows, and we must make 
many arrows, so as to get something to eat, and 
we must have fishing lines," said Keketaw, " or we 
shall not be able to live in the woods." 

For some days the two boys were getting ready. 
It took them a long time to scrape a piece of bone 
into a fishhook by means of a beaver's tooth set 
in a stick, but they made three of these hooks. 
They made some more hooks not so good as these 
by tying a splinter of bone to a little stick. Keke- 
taw's mother made fishing lines for them. She 
took the long leaves of the plant which we call 
Spanish bayonet, and separated these threads into 



15 

a hard cord, rubbing them between her hand and 
her knee. 

" We must have swords," said Keketaw„ 

" We can cut our meat with this," said Henry, 
pointing to a knife made of cane, such as the Indi- 
ans called a pamesack. 

" But the Monacans may come," said Keketaw. 
" If we should see one sticking up his head, I 
should want a sword to fight him with ; and if we 
should kill him, we could cut off his scalp with it ; " 
and Keketaw's eyes glistened a little at the thought 
of fetching home a Monacan's scalp. 

The Monacans were fierce Indians of a tribe 
living in the country west of the Powhatan Indians. 
They were deadly enemies of Keketaw's tribe. 

The two boys, by much slow work with stones 
and shells and beaver-tooth chisels, managed to 
scrape a wooden sword into shape. This, Henry 
was to wear at his back. Keketaw, for his part, 
found a piece of deer's horn. He stuck it into a 
stick so that it made something like a small pickax. 
With this he said he could quickly break the head 
of a Monacan. It would also serve as a sort of 
hatchet. 

The land round the village in which Keketaw 
lived had been cleared of trees. This had been 
done by burning the trees in order to make room 



i6 

for fields. In these fields the Indians planted corn, 
beans, pumpkins, and tobacco, and a plant some- 
thing like a sunflower, which is called an artichoke. 
Of the root of this artichoke they made a kind of 
bread. 

For many miles there were no good canoe trees 
near the water. They had all been picked out and 
used. Henry and Keketaw traveled twenty miles 
into a deep woods, and chose a tree that would 
make a good canoe, and that stood near a stream 
which ran into the James River. 

The first thing they did was to break down 
young trees and boughs, and build themselves a 
brush tent. They made a bed out of dry leaves. 
The first night they had nothing to eat, for they 
had no time to shoot any game. The next morning 
they were too hungry to sleep late, and they knew 
that squirrels are early risers. Soon after day- 
light the Indian boy killed a squirrel with an 
arrow. Having no fire, they ate it without cook- 
ing; for, when one is a savage, one must not be 
too nice. 

How should they get a fire ? They first took 
a piece of dry wood, which they scraped flat with 
stones. Then, with a blow of his tomahawk of 
deer's horn, Keketaw made a round hole in the 
wood. One end of a dry stick was placed in this 



17 

hole. The other end was supported in the hollow 
of a shell which Keketaw held in his hand. 

The string to Henry's bow was made of one of 
the cords or sinews of a deer's leg. He wound this 
once round the stick. With his left hand, Keketaw 
then put some dry moss about the stick where it 
entered the hole in the dry wood. 

When all was ready, Henry drew his bow to 
and fro like a saw. Keketaw pressed the shell 
down on the upper part of the stick. The bow- 
string holding the stick made it whirl in the hole 
beneath. At first this seemed to produce no effect. 
After a while the rapid rubbing of the piece of 
wood in the hole made heat. Presently a very thin 
thread of smoke began to come up through the little 
heap of moss about the stick. Henry was now 
pretty well out of breath, but he sawed the bow 
faster than ever. At last the moss began to 
smolder and to show fire. 

Keketaw then withdrew the smoking stick, and 
gathered the moss together. Lying down by it, 
and putting his arm about it, the Indian lad began 
to blow it gently. The smoldering fire increased 
until a little blue flame, which he could barely see, 
appeared. Keketaw now added some very thin 
paper-like bits of dry bark and some small twigs 
to the pile of smoking moss. These caught fire, 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 2 



i8 



and sent up a straw-colored flame. Henry put on 
larger twigs until there was at last a crackling blaze. 

Taking lighted sticks from this fire, the boys 
made a fire all round the base of a large tree from 
which they meant to get the canoe. 
This fire they kept going constantly 
for two days. They even got up _^ 

at night to put dead boughs 
on it. 

On the third 
night of then- 
stay in camp, 
they didn't lie 
down at the 
usual time, for 
the tree was 
burned nearly 
through. About 
two o'clock in 
the morning a 
little breeze rus- 
tled in the leaves 
of the great tree. 
Slowly at first, then more and more rapidly, the 
tree fell with a tremendous crashing sound, until 
with a final thundering roar it lay flat upon the 
ground. 




Burning down a Tree. 



19 

Sleepy as the boys were, they did not He down 
for the night until they had built a new fire near 
the trunk of the tree. Having no ax to chop with, 
they had to burn the log in two. They put the fire 
at a place that would cut off enough of the tree 
trunk to make a canoe. 

The next day they built up this new fire, and 
then went fishing in the neighboring stream with 
their bone fishhooks, and lines made of the Spanish 
bayonet leaf. In two days after the fall of the 
tree they had burned off the log that was to make 
their canoe, and had scraped off all the bark with 
shells. 

They then lighted little fires on top of the log, 
and, when these had charred the wood for an inch 
or more in depth in any place, they removed the 
fire and scraped away the charcoal. Then they 
built another little fire in the same place. These 
little fires were made with gum taken from the 
pine trees. 

By burning and scraping they gradually dug 
out the inside of their boat, scraping out one end 
of it while they were burning out the other, and 
working at it day after day. 

The only tools they had for scraping were shells 
from the river, and sharp stones. Keketaw some- 
times used his deer-horn tomahawk for the same 



20 

purpose. It was fourteen days from the time they 
first lighted the fire at the foot of the tree until 
their canoe was finished. Two more days were 
spent in making paddles. This work was also 
done by burning and scraping. 

When all was done, the canoe was slid down the 
soft bank into the water. It floated right side up, 
to the delight of its makers. The boys now 
thought it would be a fine stroke to take a deer 
home with them. So they pulled one end of their 
canoe up on the shore, and started out to look 
for one. 

But the first tracks they found were not deer 
tracks. They were the footprints of men. Keke- 
taw made a sign to Henry by turning the palm of 
his hand toward the earth, and then moving the 
hand downward. This meant to keep low, and 
make no noise. Then Keketaw climbed a high 
pine tree. From the top of the tree he could see 
a number of Indians at a spring of water. 

The boy slid down the tree in haste. " Mona- 
cans on the war path ! " he whispered as he reached 
the ground. 

Swiftly and silently the two boys hurried back 
to their canoe. They wasted no time in admiring 
it. ■ They gathered their weapons and fishing lines, 
and got aboard. It was not a question of killing 



21 

Monacans now, but of saving themselves and their 
friends. They rowed with all their might from 
the start. 

For hours they kept their new paddles busy. 
They reached the village after dark, and when they 
uttered the dreadful word " Monacans," it ran from 
one wigwam to another. The women and chil- 
dren shuddered with fear. The warriors smeared 
their faces with paint, to make themselves uglier 
than ever, and departed. Soon after the boys had 
started home, the Monacans had found their camp 
fire still burning. Thinking they had been dis- 
covered, and knowing that a strong party of the 
Powhatan Indians might come after them, the 
Monacans had hurried back to their own home 
more swiftly than they had come. 



SOME THINGS ABOUT INDIAN CORN. 

When the white people first came to America, 
they had never seen Indian corn, which did not 
grow in Europe. The Indians raised it in little 
patches about their villages. Before planting their 
corn, they had to clear away the trees that covered 
the whole country. Their axes were made of stone, 
and were not sharp enough to cut down a tree. 



22 



The larger trees they cut down by burning them oft 
at the bottom. They killed the smaller trees by build- 
ing little fires about them. When the bark all round 
a tree was burned, the tree died. As dead trees bear 
no leaves, the sun could shine through their branches 
on the ground where corn was to be planted. 

Having no iron, they had to make their tools as 
they could. In some places they made a hoe by 
tying the shoulder blade of a deer to a stick. In 
other places they used half of the shell of a turtle 
for a hoe or spade to dig up the ground. This 
could be done where the ground was soft. In 
North Carolina the Indians had a little thing like a 
pickax which was made out of a deer's horn tied 
to a stick. An Indian woman would sit down on 
the ground with one of these little pickaxes in her 
hand. She would dig up the earth for a little space 
until it was loose. Then she would make a little 
hole in the soft earth. In this she would plant four 
or five grains of corn, putting them about an inch 
apart. Then she covered these grains with soft earth. 
In Virginia, where the ground was soft and sandy, 
the Indians made a kind of spade out of wood. 

Sometimes they planted a patch a long way off 
from their bark house, so that they would not be 
tempted to eat it while it was green. The Indians 
were very fond of green corn. They roasted the 



23 

ears in the ashes. Some of the tribes held a great 
feast when the first green corn was fit to eat, and 
some of them worshiped a spirit that they called 
the " Spirit of the Corn." 

When the corn was dry, the Indians pounded it 
in order to make meal or hominy of it. Some- 
times they parched the corn, and then pounded it 
into meal. They carried this parched meal with 
them when they went hunting and when they went 
to war. They could eat it with a little water, with- 
out stopping to cook it. They called it Nokick, 
but the white people called it No-cake. 

When the Pilgrims came to Cape Cod, they sent 
out Miles Standish and some other men to look 
through the country and find a good place for them 
to settle. Standish tried to find some of the Indians 
in order to make friends with them, but the Indians 
ran away whenever they saw him coming. One day 
he found a heap of sand. He knew it had been 
lately piled up, because he could see the marks of 
hands on the sand where the Indians had patted it 
down. Standish and his men dug up this heap. 
They soon came to a little old basket full of Indian 
corn. When they had dug further, they found a very 
large new basket full of fine corn which had been 
lately gathered. 

The white men, who had never seen it before, 



24 



thought Indian corn very beautiful. Some of the 
ears were yellow, some were red. On other ears 
blue and yellow grains were mixed. Standish and 
his men said it was a " very goodly sight." The 

Indian basket was round 



"v,ft?%^' 



##,{4 



ii?/ 



and narrow at the top. 
It held three or four 
bushels of corn, and it 
was as much as two 
men could do to lift it 
from the ground. The 
white men wondered to 
g-i^^'X^ see how handsomely it 
1* x" was woven. 

' Near the pile of corn 
'/^^ they found an old kettle 
I which the Indians had 
probably bought from 
some ship. They filled 
this kettle with corn. 
They also filled their 
baskets with it. They 
wanted the corn for seed. They made up their 
mind to pay the Indians whenever they could find 
them. The next summer they found out who were 
the owners of this buried corn, and paid them for 
all the corn they had taken. If they had not found 




Standish and his Men find Corn. 



25 

this corn, they would not have had any to plant the 
next spring, and so they would have starved to death. 

The people that were with Miles Standish settled 
at Plymouth. They were the first that came to 
live in New England. An Indian named Squanto 
came to live with the white people at Plymouth. 
Squanto was born at this very place. He had been 
carried away to England by a sea captain. Then 
he had been brought back by another captain to 
his own country. When he got back to Plymouth, 
he found that all the people of his village had died 
from a great sickness. He went to live with 
another tribe near by. When the white people 
came to Plymouth, they settled on the ground where 
Squanto's people had lived. As he could speak 
some English, and as all his own tribe were dead, 
he now came to live with the white people. 

The people at Plymouth did not know how to 
plant the corn they had found, but Squanto taught 
them. Bv watchins: the trees, the Indians knew 
when to put their corn into the ground. When the 
young leaf of the white oak tree was as large as a 
squirrel's ear, they knew that it was time to put 
their corn into the ground. Squanto taught the 
white people how to catch a kind of fish which 
were used to make their corn grow. They put one 
or two fishes inter each hill of corn, but they were 



26 

obliged to watch the cornfield day and night for 
two weeks after planting. If they had not watched 
it, the wolves would have dug up the fishes, and the 
corn with them. 

The white people learned also to cook their corn 
as the Indians did. They learned to eat hominy 
and samp, and these we still call by their Indian 
names. " Succotash " is another Indian word. The 
white people learned from the Indians to use the 
husks of Indian corn to make things. The Indians 
made ropes of corn husks, and in some places they 
made shoes of plaited husks. The white people 
in early times made their door mats and horse 
collars and beds of corn husks. They also twisted 
and wove husks to make seats for their chairs. 

Of all the plants that grew in America, Indian 
corn was the most important to the Indians. It 
was also of the most value to the first white people 
who came to this country. 

SOME WOMEN IN THE INDIAN WARS. 

When white people first came to this country 
they had much trouble with the Indians. After a 
while, when they had learned to defend themselves 
and got used to danger, they did not mind it much. 
Even the women became as brave as soldiers. 



27 

In very early times there were some families of 
people from Sweden living not far from where 
Philadelphia now stands. One day the women 
were all together boiling soap. It was the custom 
then to make soap at home. Water was first 
poured through ashes to make lye. People put 
this lye into a large kettle, and then threw into it 
waste pieces of meat and bits of fat of all kinds. 
After boiling a long time, this mixture made a kind 
of soft soap, which was the only soap the early set- 
tlers had. The large kettle in which the soap was 
boiled was hung on a pole. This pole was held up 
by two forked sticks driven into the ground. A 
fire was kept burning under the kettle. Of course, 
this soap boiling took place out of doors. 

Some Indians, creeping through the woods, saw 
the women together without any men. They 
thought it a good chance to kill them or make 
them prisoners ; but the women caught sight of the 
Indians, and ran away to their little church. The 
churches in that day were often built so they 
could be used for forts. The church to which 
these women ran was one of this kind. But the 
women had no guns with them. They knew that 
when they got into the church they would have 
nothing to fight with. So two of them took hold 
of the ends of the pole on which the kettle of boil- 



28 



ing soap was hanging, and carried the kettle into 
the little church with them. 

The Indians tried to get into the church, but 
every time an Indian climbed up to get in, a 
woman would just dip up a ladleful of boiling 
soap, and dash it on him. This was a kind of 
fighting the Indians did not like. They were 
not used to soap in any form. So, when an 
Indian was scalded by the soap, he would run 
away in great pain, and not try it again. The 
next Indian that came got some of the same hot 

medicine. He also would 
have to go away to cool 
off, if he could. 

While some of the 
women were watching the 
Indians, and fighting them 
with hot soap, one of them 
took up a dinner horn 
and blew it. This din- 
ner horn was made of a 
great shell called a conch 
shell. The tip of a conch 
shell was sawed off so as 
to make a hole in it. By 
blowing into this hole, a very loud noise could be 
made. Such horns were used in that day to call 




Blowing a Conch Shell. 



29 

people to dinner, and to call the neighbors when 
there was any danger. The woman blew the conch- 
shell horn, and kept on blowing. 

The men who were away in the woods heard 
the sound of the horn. They knew that some- 
thing was wrong, because the horn was blowing 
when it was not dinner time. Either a house 
was on fire or the Indians had come. The men 
took up their guns and hurried toward the little 
church. When the Indians saw the men coming, 
they ran away. 

There was a woman in Massachusetts named 
Bradley. She had once been a prisoner among 
the Indians. She lived in a blockhouse which 
had a high fence of posts set up close together 
all round it to keep the Indians out. Such a 
fence was called a stockade. One day Mrs. Brad- 
ley was boiling soap. The gate of the stockade 
had been left open a little way. Suddenly she 
saw an Indian, with war paint on his face and 
his tomahawk in his hand, rushing in at the gate. 
The Indian thought it would be an easy thing to 
kill Mrs. Bradley. But the woman was too quick 
for him. She dashed a ladle of boiling soap upon 
him before he could run away. The soap was so 
hot that the Indian was killed by it. 

The Indians came once more to take Mrs. Brad- 



30 

ley. This time, not having any soap, she got 
a gun and shot the foremost one dead. The rest 
ran away. 

In King Phihp's War the Indians tried to take 
the town of Hadley. The men of the town fought 
hard, but the Indians were getting the best of 
the battle. A little cannon had been sent from 
Boston. It reached Hadley while the battle was 
going on. As all the men were busy fighting, 
the women loaded the cannon themselves. First 
they put in powder, and then small shot and 
nails. When the cannon was loaded, the women 
took it to the men, who pointed it into the thickest 
of the crowd of Indians, and fired it. A hail- 
storm of nails was a new thing to the Indians. 
Those who were not killed ran away very much 
frightened. 

There was a young girl in Maine who was in a 
house when the Indians attacked it. She held the 
door shut until thirteen women and children could 
get out of the house by the back door, and pass into 
a blockhouse, which is a kind of fort. The Indians 
beat down the door at last, and then knocked down 
the brave girl behind it, but they did not kill her. 

Sometimes the Indians attacked a blockhouse 
when there were none but women in it. In such 
cases the women would put on hats, and fix their 



31 

hair so as to look like men. Then they would use 
their guns well. The savages, thinking there were 
men in the place, would go away. 

There was one girl who was a captive among the 
Indians for three weeks. One day she saw a horse 
running loose in the woods. She stripped some 
tough bark from a tree, and made a bridle of it. 
Then she caught the horse, and put her bark bridle 
on him. It was just growing dark when she 
climbed on his bare back, for she had no saddle. 
She turned the horse's head toward the settlements, 
and rode hard all night. The next morning she 
was safe among her friends. 



THE COMING OF TEA AND COFFEE. 

When the first settlers came to this country, tea 
and coffee w^ere unknown to them. The favorite 
drink of that time was a kind of weak beer, which 
was usually made at home. The first settlers in 
America could not buy drinks such as they had 
had in England, and in a new country they often 
could not make them. So they found out ways 
of making other drinks in place of them. What 
we call root beer and birch beer, and a drink 
flavored with the chips of the hickory tree, were 



32 

made in New England. Farther south the people 
made a kind of drink by mixing water and molasses 
together, and putting in Indian corn. 

Such drinks were taken at meals as we take tea 
and coffee. People also drank a great deal of cider. 
As the cows hardly ever gave any milk in winter, 
children were given cider and water to drink. But 
about fifty years after the time that the first settlers 
came to this country, people in England began 
to get tea and coffee. Tea and coffee were soon 
after brought into this country. At first they were 
thought to be medicines good for many diseases. 
Little books were written to tell how many diseases 
these new drinks would cure. Root beer and birch 
beer, and tea and coffee, were good things in one 
way. After they came into use, people did not 
care so much for stronger drinks. 

When tea first came, it was very fashionable. It 
was called the new China drink. Along with the 
tea, people brought from China little teacups to 
drink it from. Most of the cups before this time 
had been made of pewter. The new cups and 
saucers were called chinaware. They also brought 
from China pretty little tables on which the}^ set 
the teacups when they drank the tea. 

When people first got tea in country places, they 
did not know how to use it. There was a minister 



33 

in Connecticut who bought two pounds of tea 
in New York. He took it home with him, and put 
it away to use when anybody in his house should 
be ill. He wanted the tea for medicine. His 
daughters had heard about the fine ladies in town 
who took tea. They were curious to taste it, and 
were not willing to wait until they should be ill. 
So one afternoon, without letting their father 
know it, they asked two young men who were 
friends of theirs to the house. Then they got out 
the package of tea, intending to treat themselves 
and the young men to a new pleasure. They knew 
nothing about making tea. When they had boiled 
it a long time, they poured off the tea and threw it 
away. They put the tea leaves on a dish, and tried 
to eat them as one would eat spinach. This is the 
way they punished themselves for disobeying their 
father. 

Before the Revolution, when gentlemen called at 
fine houses in the afternoon, the ladies always gave 
them tea to drink. As soon as a gentleman's little 
cup was empty, one of the ladies would fill it up 
again, and it was not polite to refuse to drink all 
the tea that was offered. A French prince who 
was in .Philadelphia during the Revolution drank 
twelve little cups of tea one afternoon. The ladies 
kept giving him more, and the poor prince did not 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 3 




know how to stop them 
until another French 
gentleman told him pri- 
vately that if he would 
lay his teaspoon across 
the top of the cup no 
more tea would be 
poured in. He put the 
teaspoon across the tea- 
cup as a sign that he 
did not wish to drink 
any more. 

Long after tea and 
coffee were in use in 
this country they were 
not known in the back- 
woods. The people on 
the frontier drank tea made from the root of the 
sassafras tree or from the leaves of some wild vines. 
The whole work of preparing food was done at 
home. When they wanted to grind meal, they did 
it by pounding corn in a hole cut in the stump 
of a tree. They used a large stone pounder which 
was tied by a rope to a limb of a tree above. After 
each blow the limb would spring back and raise 
the pounder. Their corn meal was sifted through 
a sieve made of deerskin with little holes punched 



A Colonial Tea Party. 



35 

through it. They had to make their shoes and 
hats and caps themselves, and to weave their cloth 
at home. 

A boy who lived on the west side of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains in those days afterward wrote 
a book telling all about this rough life. His name 
was Joseph Doddridge. He spent his boyhood in 
a log cabin, in constant danger from Indians. The 
settlers had built a fort in the middle of the settle- 
ment. Sometimes in the night Joseph would hear 
a man tapping gently on the back window of his 
father's cabin. As soon as anybody waked up, 
the man would whisper," Indians! " Joseph's father 
would then take down his gun. The children 
would be dressed in the dark as quickly as possible. 
Such things as would be needed in the fort were 
then picked up. Not a word was spoken, nor 
was any candle lighted. Even the little children 
learned to be perfectly silent, and the dogs were 
taught not to bark. When all was ready, the 
family would hurry away along the foot path to 
the fort. All the other families in the settlement 
would be called in the same way. 

Every fall these settlers sent pack horses over 
the mountains. The horses were loaded with the 
skins of animals. When they came back, they 
carried salt, which was the one thing that could 



36 

not be made in the settlement. But the men nevei 
thought it worth while to bring home with them 
tea and coffee or other unnecessary things. 

When Joseph was about seven years of age, 
he was sent over the mountains to school. The 
little boy was very much puzzled when he first 
saw a house that was plastered inside. He had 
never in his life seen anything but a cabin built 
of logs. He could not understand how a plastered 
house was built. It seemed to him like something 
that had grown that way. 

When supper time came in this plastered house, 
he saw a teacup and saucer for the first time 
in his life. The people in his neighborhood used 
wooden bowls to drink out of. But here he saw 
what seemed to him to be a little cup standing 
in a bigger one. He had never heard of coffee. 
He only knew that the brownish-looking stuff 
in his cup was not milk, or hominy, or soup. 
What to do with the little cups, or how to make 
use of the spoon that was in them, he could not 
tell, so he watched the big folks handle their 
cups and spoons. He drank the coffee just as 
they did, but he disliked it very much. It made 
the tears come into his eyes to drink it. When 
he got his cup nearly empty, it was filled again. 
He did not dare to say that he had had enough, 



37 

and he did not know what to do. At last he 
saw one man turn his empty cup bottom upward 
in the saucer, and lay his little spoon across the 
bottom of the cup. That was the custom in those, 
days. He saw that this man's cup was not filled 
any more. So Joseph drank his coffee as quickly 
as possible, turned his cup over in the saucer, 
and laid the spoon across the bottom. He was 
delighted that he did not have to drink any more 
coffee. 



KIDNAPPED BOYS. 

In the days when our country belonged to Eng- 
land, white people were brought here to be Sold. 
Some of these were poor people who could not get 
a good living in England. They came over to this 
country without any money. The captain of the 
ship in which they came sold them in this country 
to pay their passage. 

Men and women who were sold had to serve 
four years ; and boys and girls, a longer time. 
The person sold was just like a slave until his time 
was out. The man who had bought him might 
beat him, or sell him to another master. Many of 
these white slaves did not get enough to eat. 



38 

Here are some stories of boys who were brought 
to this country and sold before the Revolution, 
They are all true stories. 



THE STORY OF PETER WILLIAMSON. — TWICE A SLAVE. 

One day a boy named Peter Williamson was 
walking along the streets of Aberdeen in Scotland. 
The little fellow was eight years old. Two men 
met him, and asked him to go on board a ship with 
them. When he got on board, he was put down in 
the lower part of the ship with other boys. The 
ship sailed to America with twenty boys. Like 
Peter, the other lads had been stolen from their 
parents. They were taken to Philadelphia and 
sold, to work for seven years. 

Little Peter was lucky enough to fall into the 
hands of a kind master. Among those who came 
to buy boys off this ship was a man who had him- 
self been stolen from Scotland when he was young- 
He felt sorry for little Peter when he saw him put 
up for sale. The price the cruel captain asked for 
him was about fifty dollars. The Scotchman paid 
this money, and took Peter for his boy. He sent 
him to school in the winter, and treated him kindly. 
Peter, for his part, was a good boy, and did his work 



39 

faithfully. He staid with his master after his time 
was out. 

When Peter was about seventeen years old, this 
good master died. He left to Peter about six hun- 
dred dollars in money for being a good boy. He 
also gave him his best horse and saddle and all 
his own clothes. Some years after this, Peter 
married, and went to live in the northern part of 
Pennsylvania. He was by this time a man of 
property. 

One night, when his wife was away from home, 
the Indians came about his house. He got a gun 
and ran upstairs. He pointed the gun at the 
Indians, but they told him that if he would not 
shoot they would not kill him. So he came down, 
and gave himself up as a prisoner. 

The Indians treated him very cruelly. He was 
with them more than a year„ His sufferings were 
so Q^reat that he wished sometimes that he was 
dead. He knew that if he ran away the Indians 
would probably catch him, and kill him in some 
cruel way. But one night, when the Indians were 
all asleep, he resolved to take the risk. You may 
believe that when he had started he ran with all 
his might. 

When daylight came, he hid himself in a hollow 
tree. After a while he heard the Indians running 



40 

all about the tree. He could hear them tell one 
another how they would kill him when they found 
him. But they did not think to look into the tree. 
The next night he ran on again. He came very 
near running into a camp of Indians. But at last 
he came in sight of the house of a friend. He was 
tired out, and starving. He had hardly any clothes 
left on him. He knocked at the door. The woman 
who saw him thought that he was an Indian. She 
screamed, and the man of the house got his gun 
to kill him. But he quickly told his friend that 
he was no Indian, but Peter Williamson. Every- 
body had given him up for dead. But now all his 
friends were happy to see him alive once more. 
He had twice been carried into slavery, — once 
by cruel white men, and once by yet more cruel 
red men. 



SOLD LIKE JOSEPH. STORIES OF TWO KIDNAPPED BOYS 

You have heard the beautiful story of Joseph in 
the Bible. You remember that he was sold by his 
brothers. Then he was carried into Egypt, where 
he became a great man. 

In 1730 there was a little English lad at sea with 
his uncle, who was the captain of a ship. Whether 
the boy's father and mother were dead or not, 



41 

history does not tell. But the boy was sailing 
on his uncle's ship, as though he were the cap- 
tain's son. 

One day the captain was taken ill at sea. After 
a while he died. The mate and the sailors thought 
that they would like to steal the ship and all the 
captain's property. But it now all belonged to the 
little boy. Like Joseph's brothers, the sailors laid a 
plan to get the boy out of the way. You remember 
that Joseph's brothers saw some slave traders going 
by. These traders were Arabs, like the Arabs that 
carry off slaves to-day. Joseph's brothers stopped 
the Arabs, and sold little Joseph to them. The 
Arabs took Joseph to Egypt and sold him. 

Just so the mate and his men saw a ship coming 
toward them. This ship had a great many people 
on board. They were Irish people, who were being 
taken to America to be sold as servants. 

The mate hailed the ship, and made a bargain 
with the captain and the mate. He sold the poor 
little boy, who had no friends, to this captain. 

Then the mate and his men sailed away. What 
became of them we do not know; but the ship, 
loaded with white sei*vants, sailed to Boston. It 
landed at the Long Wharf, a pier running far out 
into the water. The servants were obliged to 
run up and down this wharf. The people who 



42 ■ 

came to buy watched them to see how strong they 
might be. 

The little boy sold by the mate was there. He 




w^^ 



Selling the Captain's Nephew. 

ran up and down with the others, to show how 
nimble his legs were. He was bought by a Mr. 
Willard. 



43 

The boy served out his time, and became free. 
He became a well-known officer in the Indian wars. 
His name was Johnson. He did not become so 
great as Joseph in Egypt, but, like Joseph, he 
gained honor in the country into which he had 
been sold as a slave. 

Here is another story of the same kind. A little 
boy six years old got lost in London. After he had 
wandered about a good while, a ship captain met 
him, and told him that he would take him to his 
father. The captain took him into a boat, put him 
on board his ship, carried him to Maryland, and 
sold him. After the boy had served out his time 
and grown to be a man, he became a rich farmer. 

The wicked ship captain who carried off the boy 
was caught stealing many years afterward. In that 
day, thieves were often sold into America for seven 
years, as a punishment. This captain who had sold 
others was now put on a ship and sent to be sold in 
Maryland. The man who bought him was the very 
person whom he had carried off when he was a boy. 

You remember how much Joseph's brothers were 
afraid of him when they found themselves in his 
power. This wicked old sea captain was frightened 
when he saw that he was now a slave to the boy 
he had stolen. He was so much alarmed that he 
killed himself. 



44 



A LITTLE LORD SOLD INTO BONDAGE. 

There lived in Ireland a long time ago a certain 
Lord Altham The time was about sixty years 
before our American Revolution. This Lord 
Altham was a weak and foolish man. He quarreled 
with "his wife, and sent her away. He wasted his 
money in wicked living, and got into debt. He 
had a little son named James Annesley. "Jemmy," 
as he was called, was sent to a boarding school; 
but the father grew more wicked, and more careless 
of his son. He sent the boy away, and pretended 
that he was dead. He did this because he wanted 
to sell some property that he could not sell if 
Jemmy were alive. 

Jemmy found himself badly treated where he 
lived. When he complained, he was told that his 
father did not pay his board : so he ran away. He 
lived in the streets with rough boys. He ran on 
errands for pay, like the other little street boys. 
But still the boys knew that Jemmy was the son 
of a lord. Strangers were surprised to hear a little 
ragged boy called " my lord " by his playmates. 

When he was about thirteen years old, his father 
died. Then Jemmy Annesley became Lord Altham 
in place of his father; but his uncle Richard, who 



45 



was a cruel man, took Jemmy's property, and called 
himself Lord Altham. 

The wicked uncle was afraid that people would 
find out that Jemmy was alive, and he sent a man 
to see where the boy 
was. When the boy 
was found, his uncle 
accused him of steal- 
ing a silver spoon. 
He hired three police- 
men to arrest the 
boy and put him on 
a ship. Poor Jemmy 
wept bitterly. He 
told the people he 
was afraid his uncle 
would kill him. The 
ship took him to Phil- 
adelphia, where he 
was sold to a farmer 
to serve until he 
should be of age. 

One day, when he was about seventeen years old, 
he came into his master's house with a gun in one 
hand and a squirrel in the other. There were two 
strangers sitting by the fire. They had found the 
door open, and had walked in. 




Kidnapping a Lord. 



46 • 

One of the men said, " Are you a servant in this 
house ? " 

" I am," said James. 

" What country did you come from ? " 

" Ireland." 

" We are from Ireland ourselves," said one of 
the strange men. "What part of Ireland are you 
from.?" 

" From the county of Wexford." 

" We are from that county. What is your 
name } " 

" James Annesley." 

" I never heard that name there," said the traveler. 

" Did you know Lord Altham } " asked the boy. 

" Yes." 

" Well, I am his son." 

" What ! " cried the stranger, " you the son of 
Lord Altham ! Impossible ! " 

But the young man insisted that he was Lord 
Altham's son. 

" Tell me how Lord Altham's house stands," 
said the stranger. 

The young man told him enough to show that 
he knew all about the place. Then the stranger 
said, that, if James ever came to Ireland to claim 
his estate, he would do what he could to help him. 

James Annesley was badly treated by his master. 



47 

At length he ran away, but he was retaken, and 
put into a jail in Lancaster. He was kept in 
prison a good while. He had a fine voice, and he 
amused himself by singing. The people used to 
stand outside of the jail to hear him sing. 

For running away he was obliged to serve a still 
longer time. He spent thirteen years in slavery. 

When he got free at last, he told Mr. Ellis of 
Philadelphia about his case. This kind-hearted 
man gave him a passage on a ship going to the 
West Indies. An EnoHsh fleet was then in the 
West Indies. It was commanded by the famous 
Admiral Vernon. When the brave admiral heard 
James Annesley's story, he took him to England. 
In England James found friends ready to help him. 

There was a long lawsuit, but James's old friends 
and schoolmates came to court as witnesses for 
him. One of the men who had talked with him 
while he was a servant in Pennsylvania told the 
Court about it. Two of the policemen that had 
helped to put little Jemmy on shipboard confessed 
the dreadful act they had done. 

Then the jury gave a verdict that James Annes- 
ley was the true Lord Altham. There was great 
joy among the people, and everybody detested the 
cruel uncle. The people made songs about him, 
and sang them under his windows, James Annes- 



48 

ley was now called Lord Altham. But before 
the young lord came into possession of his title and 
his property, he was taken ill and died. 

I am glad that we live in better times. Children 
are not kidnapped and sold now. 



THE LAST BATTLE OF BLACKBEARD. 

Our countr)' now reaches from one ocean to 
the other. But in the days before the Revolution 
there were only English colonies stretching up 
and down the Atlantic coast. Merchandise was 
carried from one colony to another, and from one 
country to another, in slow-going sailing vessels, for 
there were neither railroads nor steamships. 

In those old times there were robbers on the sea. 
We call sea robbers pirates. These men carried 
cannon on their ships, and they robbed any vessels 
not stronger than they were. In our days of large 
steamships a pirate would not stand any chance of 
getting away. He would soon be caught. Some 
of the pirates of old times sailed up and down the 
American coast. They captured ships sailing from 
America to Europe and from Europe to America. 
The worst of all these pirates was Blackbeard. 



49 



His real name was Thatch. He was called 
Blackbeard because he wore a long black beard 
that covered his face. This made him look fright- 
ful in that day, when 
other men shaved 
their faces smooth. 
He divided his beard 
into locks, and twisted 
each lock, tying it at 
the end with ribbons. 
To make himself look 
still worse, he fastened 
some of these twists 
over his ears. 

When he was fight- 
ing against another 
ship, he wore a strap 
over his shoulders to 
which were fastened 

large pistols. In those Blackbeard, 

days, cannon were 

touched off by means of a slow match, a kind of 
cord that burns slowly like punk. When Black- 
beard went into battle, he twisted some of these 
slow matches or cords round his head, and stuck 
some of them under his hat. The ends of these 
matches were burning, and they looked like fiery, 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 4 




50 

hissing snakes. With his beard turned back over 
his ears, and fire all about his head, he seemed to 
be a tall fiend. 

Blackbeard was more like a fiend than a man. 
He was cruel and wicked in every way. Some bad 
men are sometimes kind-hearted, but Blackbeard 
was always cruel. He would shoot even his own 
men in order to make his crew afraid of him. 

He did much of his bad work on the coast of 
North Carolina. Here he found bays and sounds 
where the water was shallow. Large ships could 
not easily follow him into these places. The 
Governor of North Carolina was a bad man. He 
took part of Blackbeard's plunder, and let Black- 
beard go safely about the country. The people 
were afraid of the pirate. They sent to the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, and asked him to fit out a ship to 
capture Blackbeard. 

Two sloops that could sail in shallow water were 
sent. Lieutenant Maynard was the commander. 
The ships left Virginia secretly. No one knew 
where they were going. 

When Maynard came in sight of Blackbeard's 
sloop, he hung out his flag. Blackbeard took a 
glass of rum and drank it, calling to Maynard, " I'll 
give you no quarter, nor take any." 

Maynard replied, *' I do not expect any quarter 
from you, nor will I give any." 



51 

This meant that neither of them would take any 
prisoners, but that every man must fight for his life. 

Maynard tried to run alongside Blackbeard's 
ship. He wanted to take his men on board the 
pirate ship, and fight it out on her deck. But 
Blackbeard had put a large negro near to the gun- 
powder on his ship. He said to the negro, " If the 
men from the other ship get on board of ours, you 
must set fire to the gunpowder, and blow us all up." 

Maynard was running toward the pirate ship to 
get on board ; but Blackbeard fired all the cannon 
on that side of his ship, and killed some' of May- 
nard's men. This was really lucky for Maynard; 
for, if he had got on board, the negro would have set 
fire to the gunpowder, and the pirates and Maynard's 
men would all have been blown to pieces at once. 

Maynard now sent his men down into the hold 
of the ship. They were out of sight of the pirates, 
but they had their pistols and swords ready. The 
sloops were soon close together, and Blackbeard's 
men threw boxes full of powder and shot, and pieces 
of lead and iron, on the deck of Maynard's sloop. 
These were so fixed as to go off like bombshells. 
But, as nearly all of Maynard's men were down 
below the deck, these boxes did little harm. 

Blackbeard, thinking that most of Maynard's 
men had been killed, jumped on board the sloop 



52 

with fourteen men. Maynard now called his men 
from below, and there was a desperate fight. Black- 
beard was shot five times, and was wounded with 
swords; but the old monster fought until he fell 
down dead while cocking his pistol. The rest of 
the pirates on the deck of Maynard's ship were 
taken prisoners. 

Maynard's other sloop was fighting with the men 
left on board Blackbeard's vessels. These surren- 
dered, but they had trouble to keep the big negro 
from setting fire to the gunpowder and blowing 
them all up. 

Maynard took away from the Governor of North 
Carolina many hogsheads of sugar that Blackbeard 
had stolen. Then he hung the great ugly head of 
the pirate at the bow of his ship, and sailed back to 
Virginia in triumph. 



AN OLD PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL. 

There was a schoolmaster in Philadelphia before 
the Revolution who did not like to beat his pupils 
as other masters of that time did. When a boy 
behaved badly, he would take his switch and stick 
it into the back of the boy's coat collar so that the 
switch should rise above his head in the air. He 



53 



would then stand the boy up on a bench in sight 
of the school, in order to punish him by making 
him ashamed. 

This schoolmaster's name was Dove. If any boy 
was not at school in time, the master would send 
a committee of five or six of the scholars to fetch 
him. One of this committee carried a lighted lan- 
tern, while another had a bell in his hand. The 
tardy scholar had to march down the street in broad 
daylight with a lantern 
to show him the way, 
and a boy ringing the 
school bell to let him 
know that it was time 
for him to be there. 

One morning Mr. 
Dove slept too late, or 
fors^ot himself. The 
boys made up a com- 
mittee to bring the 
teacher to school. They 
took the lantern and 
the bell with them. Mr. 
Dove said they were 

quite rightc He took his place in the procession, 
and the people saw Schoolmaster Dove taken to 
school late with a lantern and a bell. 




The Tardy Schoolmaster. 



54 

The larger schoolboys of that time were very fond 
of foot races. They would take off their coats and 
tie handkerchiefs about their heads before start- 
ing. The short breeches they wore were fastened 
at the knee by bands. When they were going to 
run a race, they would loosen these bands, and 
pull off their shoes and stockings. Some of the 
boys ran barefoot in this way, but others wore 
Indian moccasins. The race course was round a 
block; that is, about three quarters of a mile. 
Crowds would gather to see the boys run, and 
the people rushed from one side of the block to 
the other to see which was leading in the race. 



A DUTCH FAMILY IN THE REVOLUTION. 

What is now the State of New York was first 
settled by people from Holland who spoke the 
Dutch language. New York afterward became an 
English colony, but the Dutch settlers and their 
descendants still spoke the language of Holland, 
at the time of the American Revolution. 

In Flatbush, which is now a part of Brooklyn, 
was a family that spoke the Dutch language, 
while they were true Americans in feeling. When 



55 

the British landed on Long Island, they got ready 
to leave the town. The horses were hitched to the 
wagon, and such things as were thought most valu- 
able were put in. The first thing they put into the 
wagon was the great Dutch Bible with heavy brass 
clasps. A tall clock was also carefully lifted into 
the wagon. Then clothing and other things fol- 
lowed. 

The father of the family told the two faithful 
negro men, Caesar and his son Mink, how to take 
care of things. Femmetia, the most active of the 
daughters, had the whip in her hand, and, as the 
sound of firing was coming nearer and nearer, she 
tapped the horses on their ears, and the family 
dashed away to the house of a cousin who lived 
beyond the region where the fight was to be. 

That evening Femmetia helped her father, who 
was an invalid, to climb to the top of a little hill 
from which they could see a fire raging in the 
villao^e of Flatbush. The direction of the fire 
showed the father and daughter that it was their 
own house which was burning. 

When the fight was over. General Washington's 
troops had been driven from Long Island. The 
good Dutch family went back and found their house 
burned. They moved into another house, whose 
owner was still away, and then began to build a new 



56 

house. The mother bought some boards with what 
money she had saved, but she could not get any 
nails. In that day nails were not made by machinery, 
as they are now. Each nail had to be hammered 
out separately by a blacksmith. Nails made in this 
way cost a great deal of money. 

There was but one way to do. Femmetia and 
her sister had to find nails by raking over the 
ashes of the old house. Some of these nails were 
crooked, and they had to be hammered to make 
them straight enough to use. 

Some American officers had been made pris- 
oners at the battle of Long Island. They were 
allowed to go about the village after having given 
their word not to go farther. They liked to help 
the girls find nails in the ashes, and hammer them 
straight on the stones. Other young girls came 
to help them, so that there was a party of young 
people talking, joking, laughing, and digging in the 
ashes, every day. It was fun for all of them. 
There were not boards enough to finish the house. 
The room in which the two sisters slept was up- 
stairs. It had but half a floor. Where the rest 
of the floor should have been were only bare 
beams. 

One night the negro woman, whose name was 
Dian, came into the room below, and called Fem- 



57 




A Nail Party. 



metia. She told her that the British soldiers had 
come into the barn, and that they would soon take 
away what were left of the chickens. 



58 

" You jes' come down," said Dian to Femmetia. 
So the old slave and the young girl went out 
together. They carried a gun and a broomstick. 
The moon was shining. They took great pains 
not to let the soldiers see them. First they dodged 
behind a great walnut tree. Then, when they were 
sure the soldiers did not see them, they ran behind 
the corncrib. Their next march brought them 
behind the wagon house, and then they slipped 
into the dark shadow of the barn. 

Dian thrust the rifle through a hole in the side 
door of the barn. At the same moment the bold 
Femmetia threw a stone which made the soldiers 
look round. There was moonlight enough for 
them to see the muzzle of the gun coming through 
the door as though it were ready to fire at them. 
They ran away in great haste, and left the chickens 
behind. 

The silver plate and other valuable things were 
buried under the hearth in the house. A lady in 
a neighboring house hid her gold coins in the 
middle of a great round ball of a pincushion. 
Such ball pincushions were worn by some of the 
Dutch women at that time. They hung them 
at their sides, tied by a bit of ribbon. A party of 
English soldiers came into this lady's house. They 
were much amused to see this ball at the lady's 



59 

side. One of them rudely cut the ribbon with his 
sword, and then the soldiers played ball with the 
cushion. It was sent here and there about the 
room. Twice it fell into the ashes. 

The woman who owned it expected that it would 
be torn, and all her gold would spill out, but she 
went on with her work. If she had shown any 
anxiety about the ball, the soldiers might have 
thought to look for her money in the cushion. 
At last they gave it back to her, much soiled, but 
holding its treasures safe. 



A SCHOOL OF LONG AGO. 

A HUNDRED and fifty years ago there was a 
famous teacher among the German settlers in 
Pennsylvania who was known as " The Good 
Schoolmaster." His name was Christopher Dock. 
He had two little country schools. For three days 
he would teach at a little place called Skippack, 
and then for the next three days, he would teach 
at Salford. 

People said that the good schoolmaster never 
lost his temper. There was a man who thought 
he would try to make him angry. He said many 
harsh and abusive words to the teacher, and even 



6o 



cursed him. But the only reply the teacher made 
was, " Friend, may the Lord have mercy on you." 

Other schoolmasters used to beat their scholars 
severely with whips and long switches. But 
Schoolmaster Dock had found out a better way. 

When a child came to school for the first time, 
the other scholars were made to give the new 
scholar a welcome by shaking hands with him, one 
after another. Then the new boy or girl was told 
that this was not a harsh school, but a place for 
those who would behave. And if a scholar were 
lazy, disobedient, or stubborn, the master would in 
the presence of the whole school pronounce him 
not fit for this school, but only for a school where 

children were 
flogged. The 
new scholar was 
asked to prom- 
ise to obey and 
to be diligent. 
When he had 
made this prom- 
ise, he was 
shown to a seat. 
" Now," the 

good master would say, when this was done, " who 
will take this new scholar and help him to learn ? " 




6i 




When the new 

/ boy or girl was 

'^ clean and bright 

looking, many would 

be willing to take 

charge of him or 

her. But there were 

.==;=« '. -^ lew ready to teach a 

.,.^«Ar^.. u»i:fn5- dirty, ragged little 

.^.iT/^ 7/.. child, bometimes no 



one would wish to do it. 
In such a case the mas- 
ter would offer to the one 



%. who would take such a child 
' a reward of one of the beau- 
tiful texts of scripture which 
the schoolmasters of that time used to write and 
decorate for the children. Or he would give him 
one of the pictures of birds which he was accustomed 
to paint with his own hands. 

The old Pennsylvania teachers were fond of 
making these tickets with pictures and writing on 
them. The pictures Vv'hich we have here will show 
you what they looked like. The writing is in 
German, as you will see. 

Whenever one of the younger scholars succeeded 
in learning his A, B, C, Christopher Dock would 



62 

send word to the father of the child to give him a 
penny, and he would ask his mother to cook two 
eggs for him as a treat. These were fine rewards 
for poor children in a new country. 

At certain stages in his studies, the industrious 
child in one of Dock's schools would receive a 
penny from his father, and eat two eggs cooked 
by his mother. But all this time he was not 
counted a member of the school. He was only 
on trial. The day on which a boy or girl began 
to read was a great day. If the pupil had been 
diligent in spelling, the morning after the first 
reading day, the master would give him a ticket 
carefully written with his own hand. This ticket 
read "Industrious — One Penny." This showed 
that the scholar was now really received into the 
school. But if he afterward became idle or disobedi- 
ent, Schoolmaster Dock would take away his token. 

There were no clocks or watches in the country. 
The children came to school, one after another 
taking their places near the master, who sat writ- 
ing. They spent their time reading until all 
were there. But every one who succeeded in 
reading his passage without mistake stopped read- 
ing, and came and sat at the writing table to 
write. The poor fellow who remained last on the 
bench was called the Lazy Scholar. 



63 

Every Lazy Scholar had his name written on 
the blackboard. If a child at any time failed to 
read correctly, he was sent back to study his pas- 
sage, and called again after a while. If he failed 
a second or a third time, all the scholars cried 
out, " Lazy ! " Then his name was written on the 
blackboard. Then all the poor Lazy Scholar's 
friends went to work to teach him to read his 
lesson correctly. And if his name should not be 
rubbed off the board before school was dismissed, 
all the scholars might write it down, and take it 
home with them. But if he could read well before 
school was out, the scholars, at the bidding of the 
master, called out," Industrious!" and then his name 
was rubbed off the board. 

The funniest of Dock's rewards was that which 
he gave to those who made no mistake in their 
lessons. He marked a large O with chalk on 
the hand of the perfect scholar. Fancy what a 
time the boys and girls must have had, trying to 
go home without rubbing out this O. 

If you had gone into this school some day, you 
might have seen a boy sitting on a punishment 
bench all alone. This was a fellow who had told 
a lie or used bad language. He was put there 
as not fit to sit near anybody else. If he com- 
mitted the offense often, a yoke would be put 



64 

round his neck, as if he were a brute. Some- 
times, however, the teacher would give the scholars 
their choice of a blow on the hand or a seat on 
the punishment bench. They usually preferred 
the blow. 

At certain times the scholars were permitted to 
study aloud, but at other times they were obliged 
to keep still. And a boy or girl was put as a 
watcher, to set down the names of those who talked 
in this time of quiet. 

The old schoolmaster in Skippack wrote one 
hundred rules of good behavior for his scholars. 
This is perhaps the first book on good manners 
written in America. But rules of behavior for peo- 
ple living in houses of one or two rooms, as they 
did in that day, were very different from those 
needed in our time. Here are some of the rules: 

" When you comb your hair, do not go out in 
the middle of the room," says the schoolmaster. 
This was because families were accustomed to 
eat and sleep in the same room. 

" Do not eat your morning bread on the road or 
in school," he tells them, " but ask your parents to 
give it to you at home." From this we see that 
the common breakfast was bread alone, and that the 
children often ate it as they walked to school. 

The table manners of that day were very good 



65 

for the time, but they seem very curious to us. 
He says, " Do not wabble with your stool," because 
rough home-made stools were the common chairs 
then, and the floors, made of boards that were split 
and not sawed, were so uneven that a noisy child 
could easily rock his stool to and fro. 

" Put your knife upon the right and your bread 
on the left side," he says. Forks were little used in 
those days, and the people in the country did not 
have any. He also tells them not to throw bones 
under the table. It was a common practice among 
some people of that time to throw bones and 
scraps under the table, where the dogs ate them. 

The child is not told to wait for others when he 
has finished eating, or to ask to be excused. " Get 
up quietly," says the schoolmaster, "and take your 
stool with you. Wish a pleasant mealtime, and 
go to one side." The child is told not to put the 
remaining bread into his pocket. 

As time passed on, Christopher Dock had many 
friends, for all his scholars of former years loved 
him greatly. He lived to be very old, and taught 
his schools to the last. One evenins;; he did not 
come home, and the people went to look for the 
beloved old man. They found their dear old 
master on his knees in the schoolhouse. He had 
died while praying alone. 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 5 



66 



STORIES OF WHALING. 

In the old days, before petroleum or kerosene 
had been found in this country, people had many 
ways of lighting their houses. A cheap light was 
made by putting a little grease or oil in a saucer 
in which was a little wick or rag lying over the 
edge of the saucer or drawn up through a cork 
that floated on the grease. When this wick was 
burning, it gave hardly as much light as a candle. 
This is one of the oldest ways of making light. 
It was used thousands of years ago. Many peo- 
ple now living remember little lamps made in 
this way. 

Poor people often made light by burning pine 
knots, or bits of pitch pine chopped out of old 
stumps. These gave a bright light for a time. 
Pitch pine in New England was called candle wood ; 
in the South it was called light wood. 

The commonest lisrht in old times was the tallow 
candle. This was sometimes made by dipping a 
candle wick into melted tallow. Then, when the 
tallow had cooled, the candle was dipped again 
and asain. A little tallow remained on it each 
time, and at last it was thick enough to burn. 
Candles made in this way were called " dips." 



67 

Better candles were made by running melted tal- 
low into molds. 

Before the Revolution a favorite candle for burn- 
ing at fine houses was made of the wax-myrtle berry. 
This berry is full of a kind of green wax which 
came out when it was boiled. When this wax rose 
to the top of the pot, it was skimmed off and used 
for making wax candles. These candles had a 
pretty green color, and gave out a delicate perfume 
when they were burning. More expensive candles 
were made of beeswax. 

For hundreds of years whale oil was burned in 
large lamps, and thousands of whales were killed 
in order to get the oil. Candles were also made 
from spermaceti, which is a substance taken from 
the head of the sperm whale. 

When the people first settled on Long Island, 
there were a great many whales in the sea. Some- 
times these whales would run into bays and other 
shallow places. When the tide went out, the 
whale would be left without water enough to swim 
in. Sometimes he found himself lying on the dry 
ground. Before the white people came, the Long 
Island Indians used to kill whales stranded in this 
way, with spears. The Indians used the fat of the 
whale for food. The white people killed them, and 
got the oil out of the fat by boiling. This oil they 
sold for lamp oil. 



Finding that much money could be made by 
selling whale oil, the people on Long Island fitted 
up boats, which they kept always ready along the 
seashore. Whenever anybody saw a whale, the 
boatmen ran to their boats, and rowed out to kill 
it. They did not yet know how to go out to sea 
in whaling ships as some people in Europe did. 
After a while the Long Island people learned to 
take their small boats out to sea for miles to look 
for whales. This way of killing the whales spread 
from Long Island to Connecticut, and from there 
to Cape Cod. 

• The people on the island of Nantucket had also 
learned to kill the whales that came into shallow 
water. They got a man to come out from Cape 
Cod to show them how to go out in boats and 
kill whales along the coast. After a while they 
built small ships in which they went to sea to 
seek for whales, but they brought the fat on shore 
in order to get the oil out of it. 

In 1 718 the people on this island began to build 
ships with great kettles in them for rendering the 
oil on board the ships. The brave Nantucket men, 
and the men on the coast near by, soon began to 
send their ships into very distant seas. Some of 
them sailed among the icebergs in the Arctic 
regions ; others went to the Southern Ocean ; 



69 

and some of the Nantucket and Cape Cod ships 
went round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. 
The hardy whalemen ran great risks during their 
long voyages, but, if they were fortunate in killing 
whales, they made a good deal of money. 

There are still whaling vessels in our times, but 
not so many as there used to be. We do not need 
whale oil so much, because we have kerosene, gas- 
lights, and electric lights. There are not so many 
whales to be found as there used to be. 

When the men on a whale ship in the old times 
discovered a whale, they fitted out their boats and 
rowed toward it. The whale would go down out 
of sight. Each officer would place his boat where 
he thought the whale would come up. When the 
whale came up to get breath, the men in the nearest 
boat would row toward it. The officer who stood 
in the bow of the boat would then throw a harpoon, 
which would stick fast in the whale. As soon as 
the whale was struck with the harpoon, he would 
go down into the water. There was a line fast to 
the harpoon, which was coiled in a tub standing in 
the whaleboat. Sometimes the whale would run 
down so far, that it would take more line than the 
boat carried, to keep hold of him. When this was 
likely to happen, another whaling boat would come 
alongside, and tie its line to the line of the harpoon 



70 

that was fast to the whale. In some cases nearly 
five thousand feet of line were drawn out of the 
boats before the whale came to the top again. 
Whales breathe air as we do, so the whale that 
had been harpooned would have to come up 
again. Then the whaling boat would run close 
to him, and the officer would try to kill him with- 
a sharp lance. When a whale was killed, the men 
drew him alongside the ship. 

A whale's body is covered with a great mass of 
fat called blubber. When the dead whale was 
lying alongside the ship, the whalemen would fasten 
a hook in the blubber. They then cut the blubber 
into a long strip running round the whale. As 
they pulled on the hook with ropes, the strip of 
blubber came off the whale, the whale rolling over 
and over. The men unwound the blubber from his 
body in this way, pulling it up on board the ship, 
and cutting it into pieces. 

If it was a sperm whale, they would cut a hole 
in his head, to reach a place where there was a great 
quantity of oil. This oil they dipped out. Some- 
times forty barrels of oil were dipped out of the 
head of a whale. From the fat of some very large 
whales more than two hundred barrels of oil could 
be secured. 

The men on the whaling ships were gone from 



71 

home for years at a time. When there were no 
whales in sight, they had to find ways of amusing 
themselves. Many of them carried sharp pocket 
knives, and passed their time in whittling. By long 
practice they became very skillful with their knives. 
Some of them carved pretty figures in wood, and 
made pieces of furniture. Others carved shells 
into beautiful shapes. After years at sea, they 
would bring these things home with them, to give 
to their wives or sweethearts. Such work done on 
shipboard is called scrimshaw work. 

Some of the whaleships met with very curious 
accidents. In 1807 ^ ^^ip named "The Union" 
was sailing along very quietly. All at once she 
struck something which jarred her from end to end. 
It was found that she had run right on a whale. 
Casks of water were thrown out of the ship to 
make her lighter, but the bottom of the ship was 
badly injured. The men on board had to get out 
the boats at once. They took food and water with 
them, and compasses to sail by. Soon after the 
boats got clear of the ship, she filled with water, 
and upset. 

The men now found themselves in open boats 
in the ocean. The land nearest to them was New- 
foundland, but, as the wind was blowing straight 
from that land at that season of the year, they knew 



72 

that they could not reach it. So they set out in 
the direction toward which the wind blew, sailino; 
for the islands called the Azores. These were 
hundreds of miles away. They made a sail for 
each boat. 

One day they saw a schooner, but they could not 
make the schooner see them. The next day they 
had fine sailing, but at night a fearful wind arose. 
There were violent squalls and bursts of thunder. 
The boats were obliged to lie still with their bows 
to the wind. At last the waves broke into the 
captain's boat, and it was all they could do to get 
the water out again. 

They now had to throw overboard most of their 
fresh water, so that they suffered much with thirst 
from this time on. They had only three quarts of 
water a day to be divided among sixteen men. 
That is about a small teacupful apiece. After 
sailing eight days, they came in sight of the beauti- 
ful islands of the Azores, Here they found a ship 
to bring them back to their own country again. 

A still stranger accident happened to the ship 
■ Essex' in 1820, She was far away in the Pacific 
Ocean, Three of the boats of the ship went out 
after a whale. The mate's boat, having been 
injured, went back to the ship. As the mate stood 
on the ship he saw a large sperm whale rush directly 



n 

at the vessel. The whale seemed to think the ship 
some great animal, and that it would be fine fun to 
have a fight with it. He struck the ship with his 
great square head. The crash was fearful. For a 
moment or two the crew were so astonished that 
they could do nothing. Then they found the ship 




Attacked by a Whale. 

sinking. They put up signals for the other boats 
to come back. 

But the whale was not satisfied. He wanted to 
fight it out with the ship. He was soon seen com- 
ing toward the vessel again. Pie came on so fast 
that the water foamed round him. He struck the 
ship a second blow, which almost crushed it. The 



74 

mate now quickly put what provisions he could 
into a boat, and got ready to leave the ship. 

The other boats returned. The men were so 
horrified that for some time they could not speak to 
one another. The ship fell over on her side. The 
men cut away her masts. Then they cut holes 
into the ship's side, and got out what bread and 
water they could carry. They were a thousand 
miles from land, in the direction that the winds 
blew. 

After twenty-eight days of sailing in these open 
boats, the men got to Ducie's Island, Here they 
could not find food enough for so large a party, so 
the boats put off to sea again. Three men re- 
mained behind on the island. These were after- 
ward found by a passing ship, which took them 
home. Some of the men in the boats perished, but 
the rest of them were picked up by a ship and taken 
home. 

A WHALING SONG. 

PART OF A FAVORITE SONG SUNG BY WHALEMEN 
IN OLD TIMES. 

When spring returns with western gales, 

And gentle breezes sweep 
The rufiling seas, we spread our sails 

To plow the watery deep. 



75 

Cape Cod, our dearest native land, 

We leave astern, and lose 
Its sinking cliffs and lessening sands, 

While Zephyr gently blows. 

Now toward the early dawning east 
We speed our course away, 

With eager minds and joyful hearts. 
To meet the rising day. 

Then, as we turn our wondering eyes. 
We view one constant show, — 

Above, around, the circling skies, 
The rolling seas below. 



'& 



When eastward, clear of Newfoundland 

We stem the frozen pole. 
We see the icy islands stand, 

The northern billows roll. 

Now see the northern regions where 

Eternal winter reigns ; 
One day and night fills up the. year, 

And endless cold maintains. 

We view the monsters of the deep, 
Great whales in numerous swarms, 

And creatures there, that play and leap, 
Of strange, unusual forms. 



76 

When in our station we are placed, 
And whales around us play, 

We launch our boats into the main, 
And swiftly chase our prey. 



A STRANGE ESCAPE. 

In 1658 there was a 
little French colony at 
Onondaga in New York. 
Some of the men in this 
colony were traders, and 
some were missionaries. 
They were living among 
the Onondaga Indians. 

The Indians had been 

very friendly, but the 

French found out that a 

plot had been formed to 

put them all to death. 

Stakes had even been set 

up in order to burn some 

of them alive. There 

A French Missionary. seemed no hope for the 

Frenchmen to escape. They knew, that, if they 

tried to get away by land, they should all be killed. 




77 

If they shut themselves up in their fort, the Indi- 
ans would besiege them, and they would starve 
to death. They had no boats by which to get 
away by sailing through the lakes and down the 
St. Lawrence River. 

The Frenchmen went to work and built boats 
secretly in the attic of their fort or trading house. 
They built them strong enough to bear the float- 
ing ice. They had also some light canoes made of 
bark, which they hid in the upper part of their house. 
The question now was how to get away without 
the Indians finding it out and pursuing them. 

One of the young Frenchmen had been adopted 
into the tribe of these Indians. He invited the Indi- 
ans to a feast. It was a feast, of a kind the Indians 
give, in which every guest is obliged to eat every- 
thing that is set before him, leaving nothing. The 
Indians kept on eating, while the French amused 
them with dancing and games. The young 
Frenchman played on his guitar, while the guests 
ate. The Indians having eaten too much, at length 
began to fall asleep one by one. The feast was 
not over until late at night, nor until every Indian 
had eaten till he begged not to be given any more. 
Some of the Indians fell asleep while they were eat- 
ing. The rest of them were soon sleeping soundly 
in their wigwams. 



78 

The Frenchmen now quickly brought their boats 
down stairs and put them into the water. They 
loaded them with food and other things needed 
for their journey. Then they pushed off without 
making any noise or speaking above a whisper. 
The water froze about their boats as they rowed, 
and every moment they feared an attack from the 
Indians. They rowed all night long, and then 
they rowed and paddled all the next day without 
taking any rest. It was not until the evening of 
the second day that they felt they had passed out 
of the greatest danger. 

The Indians slept late the morning after the 
feast. When they waked at last, they came out 
of their huts one by one, and went toward the 
French house. They were surprised to see it shut; 
up, and everything silent about it. They supposed 
that the French were at prayer, so they waited 
quietly outside. They could hear the fowls crow- 
ing in the yard, and when they knocked at the 
door of the house, the dog barked. Noon came, 
and yet no Frenchmen appeared. 

Late in the afternoon the Indians climbed up the 
side of the house and got in by a window. They 
could hear no sound but their own steps. They 
were much frightened as they stole through the 
house and opened the main door. They searched 



79 

the building trom top to bottom, but not a French- 
man was to be found. 

As they were sure that the French had no boats, 
they were struck with fear. They gazed a moment 
at each other in silence. Then they fled from the 
house. They believed that the Frenchmen had, 
by some magic, made themselves invisible ; that 
is, so that they could not be seen. They believed 
that the French had flown away through the air, 
or walked off on the water. 

Meanwhile the French passed down Lake Ontario 
through many dangers. They went down the River 
St. Lawrence, working their way over rapids and 
waterfalls. At last they reached Montreal, where 
the people looked on them as men that had come 
up from the grave. 



GRANDMOTHER BEAR. 

Mr. Alexander Henry was made prisoner by 
the Indians on Lake Superior when Fort Mack- 
inaw was taken by Indians. This was in the 
time of the Indian war which is called Pontiac's 
War, because the great chief Pontiac started it. 

Nearly all the white men in Fort Mackinaw 
were killed, but Mr. Henry was saved. He had 



8o 

an Indian friend named Wawatam, who paid for 
his life. He went to live with Wawatam. He 
had his head shaved, and put on the dress of 
an Indian. He lived and hunted as the Indians 
did. 

One day Mr. Henry saw a very large pine tree. 
Its trunk was six feet in diameter. The bark had 
been scratched by a bear's claws. Far up on the 
tree there was a large hole. All about this hole 
the small branches were broken. 

Mr. Henry looked at the snow. There were no 
bear tracks in it. So he thought that an old 
bear had climbed up into the tree before the 
snow fell. Bears sleep nearly all winter. They 
do not even come out to get anything to eat. 

Mr. Henry told the Indians about the tree. 
There was no way of getting up to the bear's 
hole. They could not get the bear out except 
by cutting down the tree. But the Indian women 
did not believe that the Indians could do it. Their 
axes were too small to chop down so big a tree. 

However, the Indians wanted the bear's oil, which 
is of great use to them. It serves them for lard, 
and butter, and many other things. So at the 
tree they went with their little axes. As many 
as could stand about the tree worked at a time, 
and when one rested, another chopper took his 



8l 



place. They all worked, men and women, and 
they chopped all day. When the sun went down, 
they had chopped about halfway through the tree. 

The next morning they began again. They 
chopped away until about two o'clock. Then 
the top of the great pine tree began to tremble. 
Slowly it leaned a little. Then the tree began 
to fall. Everybody 
got far out of the 
way. It fell down 
amono: the other trees 
with a crash that made 
the woods roar, and 
lay at last upon the 
ground. 

But no bear came 
out of the big tree. 
Mr. Henry began to be afraid that there was no 
bear there. He thought such a crash was enough 
to wake up the sleepiest bear in the world. At 
last the nose of a bear was poked out of the hole. 
Then came the head. Then came out the great 
brown body of one of the largest bears in the 
woods. Mr. Henry shot the bear dead. 

Though the Indians kill and eat bears, they are 
very much afraid of the ghosts of the bears after 
they are dead. They are more afraid of a bear 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 6 




82 

after it is dead than when it is alive. So, whenever 
an Indian has killed a bear, he always begs the 
dead bear's pardon. Each of these Indians now 
politely begged pardon of the bear. The old 
woman who had adopted Mr. Henry for her son 
took the bear's head in her hands and kissed it. 
She called it her grandmother, and asked it not 
to do them any harm. The Indians told the 
dead bear that a white man had killed it. Of 
course, the dead bear did not say anything. 

Though they called the bear their grandmother, 
they made haste to take off its skin. They were 
glad to find that Grandma Bear was very fat. It 
took two persons to carry home the fat. Four 
more were loaded with the meat of this nice old 
relative of theirs. 

But still wishing to fool the bear's ghost, they 
carried the head also to their tent. They put all 
kinds of silver trinkets on the head, and many 
belts of wampum or shell beads on it. In order 
to please the ghost of Grandmother Bear still 
more, they laid the head on a kind of table that 
they made for it, and placed a large quantity of 
tobacco near its nose. 

The next morning a feast was made to please 
the bear's ghost. The head of the bear was lifted, 
and a new blanket was spread under it- All the 



83 

Indians lighted their pipes, and blew tobacco smoke 
into the bear's nose. Wawatam made a speech 
to the bear's spirit He told it they were very 
sorry to have to kill their friends. But he said 
it could not be helped, for, if they did not do this, 
they should starve to death. 

The speecTi being over, the whole party ate 
heartily of the bear's flesh. After three days 
they even took down the head itself, and put it 
into the kettle. Thus they ate their grandmother 
up, but they did it very politely. 



THE GREAT TURTLE. 

Among the Indians there are priests or medicine 
men who pretend to cure diseases. They also pre- 
tend to talk to their gods and other spirits. They 
have many ways of deceiving the Indians. 

Mr. Alexander Henry, while a prisoner among 
the Indians, was present when the tribe he was 
with asked advice of the Great Turtle, which is 
one of the gods they believe in. 

The Indians had heard that there was an 
English army coming against them. They were 
very much afraid, because they had killed or 
taken prisoner all the English in Fort Mackinaw 



84 

They wished to send messengers to make peace 
with the white men, but they were afraid the white 
men would kill their messengers. In this state 
of mind, they asked the Great Turtle what they 
would better do. 

They first built a large house or wigwam. In 
the middle of this they set up five posts, and 
covered these posts with moose skins. This made 
a little tent in the middle of the large wigwam. 

When night came on, they built fires in the 
wigwam outside of the little tent. This lighted 
up the house where the Indians were seated. 
Soon the priest came in. Some of the Indians 
lifted the moose skins on one side of their little 
tent. The priest crept in on his hands and knees. 
The little tent began to shake, and from the inside 
there came sounds like the barking of dogs and 
the howling of wolves, with screams and sobs, and 
cries of pain and sorrow. Words were spoken 
in strange voices, and in a language which nobody 
could understand. These voices the Indians had 
heard before, and they thought that they belonged 
to evil spirits who would tell them lies. When 
they heard these voices, the Indians hissed. They 
did not want to hear any spirit but that of the 
Great Turtle. After a while these frightful noises 
ceased. There was silence for a time. Then the 



85 

Indians heard a new voice. It was low and feeble, 
like the cry of a very young puppy. All the 
Indians now clapped their hands for joy. They 
cried out that this was the voice of the Great 
Turtle, the spirit that never lied. 

But now new voices came from the tent. For 
half an hour there were sounds in many different 
voices, but none of them were like the priest's own 
voice. When these sounds were no longer heard, 
the medicine man spoke in his own voice, and 
declared that the Great Turtle was present, and 
would answer any question that might be asked. 

The chief of the village now put a large quantity 
of tobacco into the little tent. This was a sacrifice 
to the Great Turtle. Then he told the priest to ask 
the Great Turtle whether the white men were com- 
ing to make war on them, and whether there were 
many soldiers at Fort Niagara. 

The medicine man put this question to the Great 
Turtle. The tent began to shake so violently that 
it seemed about to fall over. Then a loud cry 
came from the tent. This was to show that the 
Great Turtle was leaving. 

For a quarter of an hour no sound was heard. 
Then the Great Turtle returned. He now made 
a long speech to the priest in his little squeaky, 
puppy voice, but it was spoken in a language which 



86 

nobody could understand. After the spirit's speech 
was finished, the medicine man spoke in his own 
voice, and explained to the people that in the last 
fifteen minutes the Great Turtle had crossed 
Lake Huron, and gone to Fort Niagara, hundreds 
of miles away. Then he had gone on down to 
Montreal. He said there were not many soldiers 
at Fort Niagara, but at Montreal the river was 
covered with boats filled with soldiers. He said 
the soldiers coming to make war on the Indians 
were as many as the leaves on the trees. He told 
the Indians, that, if they would send men to the 
general of this army, he would make peace with 
them, and fill their canoes with presents of blankets, 
kettles, guns, powder, and shot. And he said, what 
pleased them still more, that the general would 
give them great barrels of rum. 

The Indians were so much delighted with this 
message, that many of them set out, soon after, to 
go in boats to make peace with the white men. No 
doubt this humbug of the medicine man was a plan 
to persuade them to go. Mr. Henry was taken 
along to act as their friend. 



87 



THE RATTLESNAKE GOD. 

Mr. Henry had traveled several days with the 
Indians going to Fort Niagara to make peace. 
One day the wind was blowing so hard that they 
could not go on. So they camped on a point 
in Lake Huron, 

While the Indians were building a hut, Mr. 
Henry was lighting a fire„ He went off a little 
way to get dry wood, and while he was picking 
up sticks he heard a strange sound. It lasted 
only a little while ; but, when Mr. Henry went a 
little farther, it began again. He looked up into 
the air to see where it came from. Then he 
looked down on the ground, and saw a large 
rattlesnake coiled close to his naked leg. If he 
had taken one step more, he would have stepped 
on it, and it would have bitten him. 

He now ran back to the canoe to get his gun 
to kill the snake. 

"What are you doing.?" asked the Indians. 

" I am going to kill a rattlesnake," he said. 

" Oh, no ! dont do that," they said. 

The Indians all got their tobacco bags and 
pipes, and went to the place where the snake 
had been seen. It was still lying in a coih 



88 




Grandfather Rattlesnake. 



The Indians now stood round the snake, and 
one after another spoke to it. They called it 
their grandfather. But they took care not to go 
too close to their grandfather. They stood off 
and filled their pipes with tobacco. Each one 
in turn blew tobacco smoke at the snake. The 
snake seemed to like it. For half an hour it lay 
there in a coil, and breathed the smoke. Then 
it slowly stretched itself out at full length, and 
seemed in a very good humor. It was more 
than four feet long. 

After having more smoke blown at it, it slowly 
cr^pt away. The Indians followed, begging their 



89 

grandfather, as they called it, to take care of 
their families while they were gone. They also 
asked that the snake would open the heart of the 
English general so that he would give them a 
great deal of rum. One of the chiefs begged the 
snake to take no notice of the insult offered to 
him by the white man, who would have killed it 
if the Indians had not stopped him. They also 
beesed that it would remain and live in their 
country. 

The Indians thought that the snake was a 
spirit or god in this form. They thought that 
it had been sent to stop them on their way. 
They were almost ready to turn back, but Mr. 
Henry persuaded them to go on. 

The next morning was calm. The Indians 
took a short course by sailing straight to an 
island out in the lake. But after they had got 
far out, the wind began to blow very hard. They 
expected every moment that their canoe would 
be swallowed up by the waves. They began to 
pray to the rattlesnake to help them. One of 
the chiefs resolved to make a sacrifice to the 
snake. He took a dog, and tied its legs together, 
and threw it into the water. He asked the snake 
spirit to be satisfied with this. But the wind 
continued to grow higher, and so another dog 



90 

was thrown into the water, and some tobacco was 
thrown with it. The chief told Grandfather Snake 
that the man who wanted to kill him was really 
a white man, and no kin to the snake or to the 
Indians. 

Some of the Indians began to think of throwing 
Mr. Henry in after the dog and the tobacco to 
satisfy the snake spirit ; but the wind went down, 
and they soon got to the island. Some days after- 
ward the party came to the fort. The English 
general was very glad to see Mr. Henry, and his 
long captivity was over, in spite of the anger of 
the rattlesnake god of the Indians. 



WITCHCRAFT IN LOUISIANA. 

The Indian medicine men or priests have many 
ways of deceiving their people. A French officer 
found that the people of a certain tribe believed 
very much in an idol which a medicine man had set 
up. This idol was called by a long name, Vistee- 
poolee-keek-apook. The Indians, when they stood 
near, would sometimes hear it speak, and this 
seemed to them a very wonderful thing. 

A French officer named Bossu tried to find out 
what made the idol talk. He found a long reed. 



91 

such as we call a cane pole, running from the back 
of the idol's head to a cave or hollow in the rocks 
behind the idol. This reed had been made into a 
hollow tube. In the cave there was a medicine 
man who talked -into the tube. The words com- 
ing out of the other end in the idol's head were 
heard from the mouth of the idol, as if the idol 
were speaking. Bossu showed the Indians the 
trick, and then got one of his soldiers to destroy 
the idol. 

The soldier that destroyed the idol was so brave, 
that the Frenchmen had given him a nickname 
which means "fearless." The medicine man de- 
clared that some dreadful thing would fall on 
Fearless because he had destroyed the idol. In 
order to make his people believe in the power of 
this god that had been thrown down, he told them 
that there was a witch or evil spirit which came to 
the village in the shape of a little black panther. 
He said, that, whenever he pronounced the name of 
his god, this little black panther would instantly 
disappear. 

You see, the cunning old medicine man had 
somehow got hold of a large black cat with yellow 
eyes. Cats were not common among the Indians, 
these animals having been brought by the white 
people. Such a cat as this, the Indians had never 



92 

seen. The medicine man kept the cat in his 
cabin, and trained it. He would strike it with a 
whip, crying out every time he struck it, " Vistee- 
poolee-keek-apook ! " 

The poor cat became afraid of the long ugly 
name of the Indian god, because the whip and the 
name always came together. One day the black 
cat crept into the cabin of an Indian woman to 
get something to eat. The medicine man who 
was near by saw it. He- said the name of his god 
in his common voice. The cat, which the Indians 
believed to be a witch, jumped like lightning 
through the hole in the cabin that was used for a 
window. The Indians really believed that they 
had seen an evil spirit in the shape of a little black 
panther, and that it disappeared when the medicine 
man spoke the name of his god. 

After that, every time an Indian saw this black 
cat, or little black panther, as it was called, he spoke 
the name of this terrible god. Of course, the black 
cat with yellow eyes ran away. Tired out at last 
with being driven off in this fashion, the cat disap- 
peared entirely, and took up its home with the wild 
animals in the woods, where it could not hear the 
terrible name of the idol any more. 

Bossu afterward made use of the Indians' belief 
in spirits for his own purpose. One of his soldiers 



93 

had been killed by one of the Indians. Bossu 
could not find out who killed the soldier, or even to 
what tribe the Indian that killed him belonged. He 
wanted to punish or frighten the murderer in order 
to save the lives of the rest of the French soldiers. 

He called the chief of the Indians, and told him 
that one of his men was missing. He said he was 
sure the man had not run away. He therefore 
asked that the Indians should find the man, and 
said, that, if he were not found, he should have to 
think that some of the Indians had killed him. 

The chief answered that the white soldier had 
probably gone hunting in the woods, and killed 
himself accidentally with his gun, or else he had 
been killed by a panther. To this Bossu replied 
that the animal would not have eaten the gun or 
the clothes of the soldier. He said that if the 
Indians would find the Frenchman's gun, or bits 
of his clothes, they could easily show that he had 
been killed by a wild animal. 

Bossu had a friend among the Indians who was 
very much attached to him. He persuaded this 
young Indian to tell him to what tribe the mur- 
derer of the Frenchman belonged, but he sol- 
emnly promised that the other Indians should 
never know who had told him. He paid the young 
Indian for telling him. 



94 

The Frenchman who was called Fearless now 
undertook to have the man who had killed the 
other soldier punished, for the dead soldier had 
been his friend. But it was necessary that he 
should not let the Indians know who had told 
about it. Fearless stripped off a great quantity of 
bark of the pawpaw tree. He thought he would 
play a trick like that of the medicine man, and 
make the Indians believe that a spirit was talking 
to them. He did everything very secretly. By 
fastening pieces of the pawpaw bark together with 
pitch, he managed to make a ver}'^ large speaking 
trumpet, which would carry the voice a long 
distance. 

When he had finished this trumpet, he left the 
camp one very dark night. He carried with him 
his gun, some food, and a gourd full of water. He 
had also a bearskin of which to make a bed, and 
a buffalo robe to cover himself with. With these 
things he hid himself on a hill. This hill was 
near the Indian camp. From the top of it Fear- 
less could make his voice heard for three miles 
round by the aid of his great pawpaw trumpet. 

He shouted through this great bark trumpet 
what seemed to be words in an unknown language, 
such as the Indian medicine man used. The 
frightful noise sounded through the woods. It 



95 

did not seem to come from anywhere. The Indi- 
ans thought that these cries came down from the 
sky. The Indian women were thrown into a great 
frisht, and even the warriors and chiefs were 
alarmed. They said that the Master of Life was 




■■iiiiiintifniiF"!,. 



angry with their tribe, 
and that this horrible voice showed 
that something bad was going to happen to them. 
The day after the voice was heard, the old men 
of the tribe came to consult Bossu about this 
strano^e noise. Bossu told them that the white 
soldier who had been killed could not rest. He 
said that every night his voice was heard, though 
nothinor could be seen. He said that the voice 
cried out in a melancholy tone, " I am the white 



96 

soldier that went with the French captain. I was 
killed by a man of the tribe of the Kanoatinos. 
Frenchmen, revenge my death." 

The Indians now saw that it was of no use for 
them to tell any more lies about the death of the 
white man. They believed that the soldier's 
ghost had told the Frenchmen all about it. 
They confessed the murder, but they explained 
that the white soldier had provoked it when he 
was drunk, by bad treatment of the Indian who 
killed him. 

Captain Bossu was not willing to take their 
excuses. He told them, that, if the soldier had done 
wrong, he ought to have been brought to his own 
captain to be punished. He said, " If one of my 
soldiers should kill one of your Indians, I would 
put him to death. You must do the same with 
the Indian who killed my soldier." 

The oldest of the chiefs now commanded one 
of his men to go and seize the guilty man, bind 
him, and bring him in to be put to death, in order 
that the ghost of the French soldier might no 
longer trouble them. 

Captain Bossu did not wish to put the Indian 
to death. He knew that the French soldier had 
very greatly wronged and provoked the Indian, 
He got his young Indian friend to go to the wife 



97 

of the chief of the Kanoatinos, and say to her that 
she might beg the Hfe of the guilty man. The 
young Indian told the chiefs wife that Captain 
Bossu would not refuse her anything. The woman 
went, and begged that the Indian might be spared. 
Bossu consented that the Indian should live, but 
said that he did it as a favor to the chief's wife. 

The chief then turned to the condemned Indian, 
and said to him, " You were dead, but the captain 
of the white warriors has brought you to life at the 
request of the chief's wife." The white people and 
Indians then smoked the pipe of peace together. 



A STORY OF NIAGARA. 

Many years ago, the falls of Niagara, then in 
the midst of a great wilderness, and a long way 
from the homes of the white people, seemed even 
more wonderful than they do now. In those 
days, travelers from other countries made long 
journeys through the woods to see this wonderful 
waterfall. Indians lived about it, and there was a 
fort near by, belonging to the French. 

Wild swans, geese, and ducks used to swim in 
the Niagara River. Sometimes great flocks of 
them lost their lives by going over the falls. Water 

EGGL, AMER. LIFE — 7 



98 



fowl are fond of floating on smooth, moving 
water. The wild geese and ducks would take 
great delight in finding themselves shooting down 
toward the falls. Sometimes they would try to rise 
and fly when it was too late. 




Niagara Falls. 

In the autumn the soldiers of the fort used to get 
their meat by taking from the water below the falls 
the ducks and geese that had been killed in this 
way. Sometimes they would find a deer or a bear 
that had been carried over in trying to swim 
across the river above the falls. 



99 

In the midst of the falls is an island. Many 
years ago two Indians were hunting far above the 
falls. They had with them a little brandy, which 
they drank. This made them sleepy, and they lay 
down and went to sleep in their canoe, which was 
tied to the shore. The canoe got loose from the 
shore, and floated down the stream farther and 
farther, until it came near to the island which is 
in the falls. 

The roar of the falls awakened one of them. He 
cried out to the other, " We are lost ! " But by 
hard work they succeeded in landing the canoe at 
the island. 

At first they were very glad, but after a while 
they thought it might have been better if they had 
gone over the falls. They had now no choice but 
to die of hunger on the island, or to throw them- 
selves into the water. 

At the lower end of the island there is no water 
running over the falls. The Indians stripped the 
bark from a linden or basswood tree. This bark 
is very tough and strong. They made a kind of 
rope ladder of it. They made it so long that it 
reached to the water below the falls. The upper 
end of this bark ladder they tied fast to a great tree 
that grew on the island. The other end they let 
down to the water below the falls. 

L.ofC. 



lOO 



Then they went down this ladder until they 
came to the bottom. The water was roaring on 
both sides of them, but they had a place to stand. 
Here they rested a little while. The water in 
front of them was not. rapid. They jumped into 
it, intending to swim ashore. But the water that 
pours in from the falls on each side, runs back 
against the rocks in this place. Every time the 
Indians tried to swim, they were thrown back 
against the rocks from which they started. At 
last they were so much bruised and scratched, 
they were obliged to give up this plan. So they 
climbed back up their bark stairs to the island, 
not knowing what to do. 

After a while they saw other Indians on the 
shore. They cried out to these to come and help 
them. The other Indians did not know what to 
do. They had no way of getting to the island. If 
they had tried to get there in a canoe, they would 
have been carried over the falls themselves. They 
went to the fort, and told the commander about it. 
He had poles made, and pointed with iron. He 
persuaded two Indians to take these poles, and 
walk with them to the island. 

These two Indians took leave of all their friends 
as if they were going to die. Each of them took 
two poles in his hands. They set these poles 



lOI 



against the bottom of the river to keep themselves 
steady, while they waded through the water. It 
was a very dangerous thing to do, but at last they 
got to the island. Then they gave a pole to each 
of the two Indians, and all four of them started 
back again. By the help of the poles they man- 
aged to get to the shore in safety. 



AMONG THE ALLIGATORS. 

Before the Revolution there lived in Pennsyl- 
vania a man named William Bartram. He was a 
botanist ; that is to say, a man who knew a great 
deal about different kinds of plants. Wishing to 
see the plants and animals of the South, he 
traveled through South Carolina and Georgia, 
and so on into Florida. 

In a little canoe, Bartram set out to go up the 
St. Johns River. He took an Indian along for a 
guide, but the Indian got tired of the trip, and left 
him. Bartram kept on up the river alone. The 
country was wild, and the river was filled with great 
alligators. 

Bartram saw two large alligators fighting. They 
ran at each other from opposite sides of the river. 
They lashed the water with their tails. They 



102 

met in the middle of the river, and fought with 
great fury, making the water boil all round them. 
They twisted themselves one round the other, and 
sank to the bottom fighting. Their struggles at 
the bottom brought up a great deal of mud. 

Soon they came to the top once more, clapping 
their great jaws together, and roaring. They fell 
on each other again, and sank to the bottom. But 
one of them was by this time beaten. He swam 
away into the reeds on the bank. The other rose 
to the top of the water, and celebrated his victory 
by a loud roaring sound. All the alligators along 
the shore joined in the horrible roaring at the 
same time. 

The alligators had gathered in great crowds 
at certain places to catch the fish that were coming 
up i rom the sea. Bartram wanted some fish for his 
supper. He took a stick to beat off the alligators, 
and got into his canoe. But the farther he paddled 
from the shore, the more the alligators crowded 
round him. Several of them tried to overturn 
his canoe. Two large ones attacked him at the 
same time, with their heads above the water, and 
their mouths spouting water all over the botanist. 
They struck their jaws together so close to his 
ears that the sound almost stunned him. 

Bartram beat them off with his club, and paddled 



103 

for the shore. When he got near the shore, the 
alligators left him. He went a little farther up the 
river, and got some fish. When he came back, he 
kept close to the shore. One alligator twelve feet 
long followed him. When Bartram went ashore 
near his camp, the creature crept close to his feet, 
and lay there looking at him for some time. 




Bartram ran to his camp to get his gun. When 
he came back, the alligator was climbing into his 
boat to get the fish he had caught. He fired his 
gun, and killed the great beast. But while he was 
cleaning his fish, another one crept up to him, and 
would have dragged him into the water if Bartram 



104 

had not looked up just in time to get out of his 
way. The next day he was pursued by more 
alhgators; but he beat them off with his dub, and 
got away. 

JASPER. 

" Marion's Men " were famous in the Revolution 
for their bold adventures. The best known of all 
these bold men was Sergeant Jasper. At the 
battle of Fort Moultrie, when the flag of the fort 
was shot away, Jasper jumped down outside of the 
works, and picked it up. The balls were rain- 
ing round him all the time he was outside, but he 
coolly fastened the flag to a rod which was used to 
wipe out the cannon, and then stuck it up in the 
sand of the breastworks. 

When General Moultrie saw what he had done, 
he took off his own sword and gave it to Sergeant 
Jasper. 

When Moultrie and his men were hiding in the 
swamps of South Carolina, Moultrie would send 
Jasper to find out what the British were doing. 
Jasper could change his looks so that nobody 
would know him. He often went into the British 
camp, pretending to be on that side. 

Once he took a friend with him, and paid a visit 



I05 

to the British soldiers. While he was there, a 
small party of American prisoners were brought 
in. The wife of one of the prisoners had come 
with her husband, carrying her child. As these 
men had once fought on the English side, they 




were all likely to be put to death. Jasper felt 
sorry for them, and resolved to deliver them if 
he could. 

The prisoners were sent to Savannah for trial. 
Jasper and his friend left the British camp soon 
afterward, but they went in the opposite direction. 
When they got far enough away, they turned 



io6 



about and followed the party with the prisoners. 
But what could they do for these poor fellows ? 
There were ten men with muskets' to guard the 
prisoners. Neither Jasper nor his friend had a 



But they knew that near Savannah there was a 
famous spring of water. They thought the party 
would stop there to eat and drink. So Jasper 
and his friend went on swiftly, by a path little 
known. When they came near the spring, they 
hid in the bushes. 

When the soldiers with their prisoners came to 
the spring, they halted. The prisoners sat down 
on the ground. The woman sat down near her 
husband. Her baby fell asleep in her lap. Six of 
the soldiers laid down their arms, and four stood 
guard. 

Two of these went to the spring to get water, 
and, in doing this, they were obliged to put down 
their guns. In an instant Jasper and his friend 
leaped out of the bushes and seized the two guns. 
They killed the two guards who had guns, before 
the latter could shoot them. Then they knocked 
down every man who resisted them, and got pos- 
session of all the rest of the guns of the British. 
With these they took the eight soldiers prisoners. 
They now gave guns to the American prisoners, 



107 

and marched away with the eight British soldiers 
in captivity. 

Jasper was one of the boldest of men. He did 
many brave things, but at last he lost his life in 
saving the flag of his company in battle. 



SONG OF MARION'S MEN. 

Our band is few, but tried and true. 

Our leader frank and bold : 
The British soldier trembles 

When Marion's name is told. 

We have no fort but dark green woods^ 

Our tent's a shady tree: 
We know the forest round us 

As sailors know the sea. 

With merry songs we mock the wind 
That in the tree top grieves. 

And slumber long and sweetly 
On beds of rustling leaves. 

Well knows the fair and friendly mocn 
The band that Marion leads, — 

The glitter of their rifles. 

The scampering of their steeds. 




'Tis life to ride the 
fiery horse 
Across the moon- 
hght plain ; 
'Tis life to feel the 
night wind 
That lifts his toss- 
ing mane. 

A moment in the Brit- 
ish camp — 
A moment — and 
away 
Back to the pathless 
forest, 
Before the peep of 
day. 

Adapted from Bryant. 



One of Marion's Men. 



A BRAVE GIRL. 

In the time of the Revolution, a regiment of 
Hessian soldiers hired to fight on the British side 
were camped in South Carolina. They took pos- 
session of the lower part of the house of a farmer 



109 

named Gibbes. The family were forced to retire 
to the upper story. 

Two American boats came up the Stono River, 
and attacked these Hessians. Cannon balls were 
soon falling all about the "house, Mr. Gibbes, 
who was so ill that he could hardly walk, got 
leave to move his family to another place. To 
do this, the whole family had to cross a field 
where the cannon balls were flying thick. At 
last they got out of reach of the cannons. Then 
they remembered that a little baby had been left 
behind. Neither Mr. Gibbes nor his wife was 
able to travel back to the house again. The 
negroes were too much frightened to go. All 
the rest were children. 

Little Mary Anne Gibbes was only thirteen 
years old. The baby that had been left was her 
cousin. 

" I will go and get him," she said. 

It was a dark and stormy night. She went 
back into the heat of the battle. When she 
reached the house, the soldier who stood at the 
door would not let her go in. But, with tears 
in her eyes, she begged so hard that he let her 
pass. In the third story of the house she found 
the baby. 

Then downstairs, and out into the darkness 



no 



and the crash of battle, she went. The cannon 
balls scattered dust over her and the baby when 
they struck near her, but she got back to her 
family at last, carrying the baby safe in her arms. 



A PRISONER AMONG THE INDIANS. 

James Smith lived in Pennsylvania. He was 
taken prisoner by the Indians just before the 
famous defeat of General Braddock. He was then 
about eighteen years old. The Indians took him 
to the French fort where Pittsburg now is. They 
made him run the gauntlet; that is, they made 
him run between two lines of Indians, who were 
beating him all the way. He was so badly beaten 
that he became unconscious, and was ill for a good 
while after. But at length he got well, and the 
Indians took him to their own country in what is 
now the State of Ohio. 

When they arrived at their own town, they did 
not kill him, as he thought they would ; but an 
Indian pulled the hair out of his head with his 
fingers, leaving only the hair that grew on a spot 
about the crown. Part of this he cut off short. 
The rest was twisted up in Indian fashion, so as to 
make him look like a savage. They pierced his 



Ill 



ears, and put earrings in them. Then they pierced 
his nose, and put in a nose ring. They stripped 
off his clothing, and put on the light clothing 
that an Indian wears about the middle of his 
body. They painted his head where the hair had 
been plucked out, and painted his face and body, in 
several colors. They put some beads about his 
neck, and silver bands upon his arms. 

All this time James thought they were dressing 
him up to kill him. But, when they had decked 
him in this way, an old chief led him out into the 
village street. Holding the young man by the 
hand, he cried out, — 

" Koowigh, Koowigh, Koowigh ! " 

All the Indians came running out of their houses 
when they heard this. The old chief made them 
a long speech in a loud voice. James could not 
understand what this speech was about. When it 
was ended, the chief handed James over to three 
young Indian women. 

James thought the young squaws were going to 
put him to death. They led him down the bank 
into the river. The squaws made signs for him to 
plunge himself into the water; but, as he thought 
they wished to drown him, he refused. He was 
not going to drown himself to please them. The 
young women then seized him, and tried to put 



112 



him under water. But he would not be put down. 
All this time the Indians on the bank were laugh- 
ing heartily. 

Then one of the young squaws, who could speak 
a little English, said, " No hurt you." Smith now 




James Smith sitting on a Bearskin. 

gave up to them, and they scrubbed him well, dip- 
ping his head under water. 

When he came out of the water, he was dressed 
up in a lot of Indian finery. The Indians put 
feathers in his hair, and made him sit down on a 
bearskin. They gave him a pipe, and a tomahawk, 
and a bag of tobacca and ^ried sumach leaves to 



113 

smoke. Then they made a speech to him, which 
an Indian who could speak English explained to 
him. 

They said that he had been made a member of 
an Indian family in place of a great man who had 
been killed. And then they gave him a wooden 
bowl and a spoon, and took him to a feast, where 
Indian politeness required that he should eat all 
the food given to him. 

After James Smith was adopted by the Indians, 
he learned to live in their way. He learned how 
to make little bowls out of elm bark to catch 
maple-sugar sap, and how to make great casks 
out of the bark to hold the sap till it could be 
boiled. He learned how to make a bearskin into 
a pouch to hold bear's oil, of which the Indians 
were very fond. They mixed their hominy with 
bear's oil and maple sugar, and they cooked their 
venison in oil and sugar also. 

The Indians gave James an Indian name. 
They called him Scouwa. The Indians gave him 
a gun. Once when they trusted him to go into 
the woods alone, he got lost, and staid out all night. 
Then they took away his gun, and gave him a bow 
and arrow, such as boys carried. For nearly two 
years he had to carry a bow and arrows like a boy. 

He was once left behind when there was a great 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 8 



114 

snowstorm. He could not find the footsteps of 
the others, on account of the driving snow. But 
after a whil^he found a hollow tree. There was a 
little room three feet wide in the inside of the tree. 
He chopped a great many sticks with his toma- 
hawk to close up the opening in the side of the 
tree. He left only a hole "B^Ni^n^gh for him to 
crawl in through. He fixed ^i^ck for a kind of 
door, so as to close this h-Qi<^by drawing the door 
shut when he was inside. When the hole was 
shut, it was dark in the tree. 

But JameS; or Scouwa as he was called, could 
stand up in the tree. He broke up rotten wood 
to make a bed like a large goose nest. He danced 
up and down on his bed till he was warm. Then 
he wrapped his blanket about him and lay down 
to sleep, first putting his damp moccasins under 
his head to keep them from freezing. When he 
awoke, it was dark. The hole in the tree was 
so well closed that he could not tell whether it 
was daylight or not, but he waited a long time 
to be sure that day had come. 

Then he felt for the opening. At last he 
found it. He pushed on the block that he had 
used for a door, but three feet of snow had 
fallen during the night. All his strength would 
not move the block. He was a prisoner under 



115 

the snow. Not one ray of light could get into 
this dark hole. 

Scouwa was now frightened. Not knowing 
what to do, he lay down again and wrapped 
his blanket round him, and tried to think of a 
way to get out. He said a little prayer to God. 
Then he felt for the block again. This time 
he pushed and pushed with all his might. The 
block moved a few inches, and snow came tum- 
bling through the hole. This let a little daylight 
in, and Scouwa was happy. 

After a while he pulled his blanket tight about 
him, stuck his tomahawk in his belt, and took his 
bow in hand. Then he dug his way out through 
the snow into the daylight. 

All the paths were buried under the deep snow. 
The young man had no compass. The sun was 
not shining^. How could he tell one direction from 
another, or find his way to the Indian camp ? The 
tall, straight trees, especially those that stand alone, 
have moss on the north or northwest side. By 
looking closely at these trees, he found out which 
way to go. It was about noon when he got to the 
camp. The Indians had made themselves snow- 
shoes to go in search of him. 

They all gathered about him, glad to see him. 
But Indians do not ask questions at such a time. 



ii6 

They led the young man to a tent. There they 
gave him plenty of fat beaver meat to eat. Then 
they asked him to smoke. While he was rest- 
ing here, they were building up a large fire in 
the open air. Scouwa's Indian brother asked him 
to come out to the fire. Then all the Indians 
young and old, gathered about him. 

His Indian brother now asked him to tell what 
had happened to him. Scouwa began at the 
beginning, and told all that had occurred. The 
Indians listened with much eagerness. 

Then the Indian brother made him a speech. 
He told the young man that they were glad to 
see him alive. He told him he had behaved like 
a man. He said, " You will one day be a great 
man, and do some great things." 

Soon after this, the Indians bought him a 
gun, paying for it with skins, and he became 
a hunter. 



HUNGRY TIMES IN THE WOODS. 

When James Smith, or Scouwa, had been 
some years among the Indians, he was in a 
winter camp with two of his adopted brothers. 
The younger of these, with his family, went away 



117 

to another place. Scouwa was left with the older 
brother and his little son. 

The older brother was a very wise Indian. He 
had thought much about many things. He talked 
to his young white brother on many subjects, and 
James always remembered him as a great man. 

The wise Indian was now suffering from rheu- 
matism. He could hardly move out of his winter 
hut at all. But he bore it all with gentle patience. 
Scouwa had to do all the hunting for himself, 
the old man, and the boy. 

Almost the only food to be had was deer meat. 
From time to time Scouwa succeeded in killing 
a deer. But at last there came a crust of snow. 
Whenever the hunter tried to creep up to a deer, 
the crust would break under his feet with a little 
crash, and the noise would frighten the deer away. 
After a while there was no food in the cabin. 

Once Scouwa hunted two days without coming 
back to the cabin, and with nothing to eat. He 
came back at last empty-handed. 

The wise Indian asked him, " What luck did 
you have, brother ? " 

" None at all," said Scouwa. 

" Are you not very hungry ? " asked the Indian. 

" I do not feel so hungry now as I did," said 
the young man, " but I am very faint and weary." 



ii8 

Then the lame Indian told the little boy to 
bring something to eat. The boy had made a 
broth out of the dry old bones of foxes and wild- 
cats that lay about the camp. Scouwa ate this 
broth eagerly, and liked it. 

Then the old chief talked to Scouwa. He told 
him that the Great Spirit would provide food for 
them. He talked in this way for some time. 

At last he said, " Brother, go to sleep, and rise 
early in the morning and go hunting. Be strong, 
and act like a man. The Great Spirit will direct 
your way." 

In the morning James set out early, but the 
deer heard his feet breaking through the snow 
crust. Whenever he caught sight of them, they 
were already running away. The young man now 
grew very hungry. He made up his mind to 
escape from the Indians, and to try to reach his 
home in Pennsylvania. He knew that Indian 
hunters would probably see him and kill him, 
but he was so nearly starved that he did not 
care for his life. 

He walked very fast, traveling toward the east. 
All at once he saw fresh buffalo tracks. He 
followed these till he came in sight of the buffa- 
loes; then, faint as he was, he ran on ahead of 
the animals, and hid himself. 



119 




Scouwa shoots a Buffalo. 

Wl"; ,. .: ; /' ■ 

' " " ^ ^?' When the buffaloes came near, 

he fired his gun, and killed a 
large buffalo cow. He quickly kindled a fire, and 
cut off a piece of the meat, which he put to roast 
by the fire. But he was too hungry to wait. He 
took his meat away from the fire, and ate it before 
it was cookedo 

When his hunger was satisfied, he began to 
think about the wise Indian and his little boy. 
He could not bear to leave them to starve, so he 
gave up his plan of escaping. 

He hung the meat of the buffalo where the 
wolves could not get at it. Then he took what 
he could carry, and traveled back thirteen tedious 
miles through the snow. 



I20 

It was moonlight when he got to the hut. 
The wise Indian was as good-natured as ever. 
He did not let hunger make him cross. He 
asked Scouwa if he were not tired. He told the 
little boy to make haste and cook some meat. 

" I will cook for you," said Scouwa. " Let the 
boy roast some meat for himself." 

The boy threw some meat on the coals, but 
he was so hungry that he ate it before it was 
cooked. Scouwa cut some buffalo meat into thin 
slices, and put the slices into a kettle to stew 
for the starving man. When these had boiled 
awhile, he was going to take them off, but the 
Indian said, 

" No, let it cook enough." 

And so, hungry as he was, the wise Indian 
waited till the meat was well cooked, and then 
ate without haste, and talked about being thank- 
ful to the Great Spirit. 

The next day Scouwa started back for another 
load of buffalo meat. When he had gone five 
miles, he saw a tree which a bear had taken 
for its winter home. The hole in the tree was 
far from the ground. Scouwa made some bundles 
of dry, half-rotten wood. These he put on his 
back, and then climbed a small tree that stood 
close to the one with a hole in it. The rotten 



121 

wood he touched to a burning stick from a fire he 
had kindled. Then he dropped the smoking bun- 
dles of rotten wood one after another down into 
the bear's den, and quickly slid to the ground again. 

The bear did not like smoke. After a while he 
crawled out of the hole to get breath. Scouwa 
shot him. 

He hung the bear meat out of the reach of 
wolves, and carried back to the hut all that he 
could take at one time. The old man and the boy 
were greatly pleased when they heard that there 
was bear meat as well as buffalo meat in plenty. 
After this they had food enough. 



SCOUWA BECOMES A WHITE MAN AGAIN. 

The next year after this hard winter in the 
woods, the Indians that Scouwa lived with went 
down the River St. Lawrence to Canada. At this 
time Canada belonged to the French. The French 
were at war with the English, to whom Pennsyl- 
vania belonged. The Indians were on the side of 
the French. 

Scouwa heard that there were prisoners from 
his country who were to be sent back in exchange 
for French prisoners. He slipped away from the 



122 



Indians, and went to Montreal. Here he put him- 
self among the other prisoners. 

After a while the prisoners were sent back to 
their own country. Scouwa came to his own 
family again. They did not know that he was 
alive. He put on white man's clothes. He let his 
hair grow like a white man's. He spoke English 
once more. He was no longer called Scouwa, but 
James Smith. But still he walked like an Indian. 
All his movements were those of an Indian. He 
had lived nearly six years among the savages. 

He afterward became a colonel among the white 
men. He moved to Kentucky, and fought against 
the Indians. But he made his men dress and fiorht 
as the red men did. He thought it was the best 
way of fighting in the woods. 



A BABY LOST IN THE WOODS. 

When people first began to move across the 
Alleghany Mountains, there were no roads for 
wagons ; but there were narrow paths called 
trails. Families traveled to the west, carrying 
their goods on horseback along these trails. 
Here is a story that will show you how they 
traveled. 



123 

Amono: those who went from Virmnia to 
Kentucky, in 1781, was a man named Benjamin 
Craig, who took his whole family with him. Mr. 
Craig wore a hunting shirt and leggings of buck- 
skin and a fur cap. Like all men in the back- 
woods, he carried a hatchet and a knife stuck in 
his belt, and he almost always had his old-fash- 
ioned flintlock rifle on his right shoulder. A 
horn to hold powder was worn under his left 
arm, and supported by a string over his right 
shoulder. He had a little buckskin bag of bul- 
lets fastened to his belt. At the head of the 
party, he traveled over the mountains on foot, 
walking before his horses. 

The horses came one after another. On the 
first horse rode Mrs. Craig. She carried her baby 
in her arms. Tied on the back of the horse 
were a pot and a skillet for frying. In a bag 
on the same horse were some pewter plates and 
cups, and a few knives and forks. 

The horse on which Mrs. Craig rode was fol- 
lowed by a pack horse ; that is, a horse carrying 
things fastened on his back. This horse was led 
by means of a rope halter, the end of which was 
tied to the saddle of the horse in front. The 
pack on his back contained some meal and some 
salt. This was all the food the family carried 



124 

tor the long journey over the mountains. Mr, 
Craig expected to get meat by shooting deer or 
wild turkeys in the woods. 

The same pack horse carried a flat piece of 
iron to make a plow, and some hoes and axes. 
The hoes and axes were without handles, except 
one ax, which was used to cut firewood during 
the journey. Handles could be made for the 
tools after the family got to Kentucky. 

Behind this horse another one was tied. He 
carried two great basket-like things hanging on 
each side of him. These baskets or crates were 
made of hickory boughs. All the clothing and 
bedding that people could take on such long 
and rough journeys was stored in these crates. 

In the middle of each crate a hole was left. 
In one of these holes rode little Master George, 
a boy of six. In the other was stowed Betsey, a 
girl of four. One fine day during the journey, 
the baby was put into the basket by the side of 
Betsey, and then the two older children amused 




125 

themselves by pointing out to the baby the things 
they saw by the wayside. 

At length the narrow trail or path passed 
along the edge of a dangerous cliff. George and 
Betsey shut their eyes, so as not to see how steep 
the place was. They were afraid the horse might 
fall off, and they be dashed to pieces. But baby 
Ben only laughed and crowed, for what did a little 
fellow like him know about danger. A hired man 
walked behind the last horse to see that nothing 
was lost. 

When night came, the horses were unloaded and 
turned loose. The little bells tied round their 
necks had been stuffed with grass during the day 
to keep them from jingling. This grass was re- 
moved, and the bells set a-tinkling, so that the 
horses could be found in the morning. The tired 
pack horses began at once to eat the long grass, 
now and then nibbling the boughs of young 
trees. 

A fire was built by a stream, and supper was 




126 

cooked. If it had been raining, the men would 
have built a little tent of boughs or bark for the 
family, but, as the weather was clear, beds were 
made of grass and dry leaves in the open air. The 
whole family slept under blue woolen coverlets, with 
only the starry sky for shelter. The fire was kept 
up for fear of wolves. 

In the morning the children played about while 
the mother got breakfast. When the meal was 
over, Mr. Craig and the hired man went to look for 
one of the horses that had strayed away. Baby Ben 
climbed into his mother's lap, as she sat upon the 
log, and fell asleep. In order to have things all 
packed by the time the men returned, the mother 
laid the little fellow on some long dry grass that 
erew amons the bouQ^hs of a fallen tree. When 

o o o 

the father returned, it was nine o'clock. He 
hurried the mother upon her horse among the pots 
and pans, saying that he wished to overtake a com- 
pany of travelers that was ahead of him, so as to 
travel more safely. 

" Now fetch me the baby," said Mrs. Craig. 

" No, mother, please let the baby ride with me 
again," said little Betsey, just come back from 
washing her face in the creek. 

" All right," said Mrs. Craig. " Put the baby on 
with the children. This horse is slow, and I will 



127 

ride on. You can bring the other horses, and catch 
up with me soon." 

By the time the second horse was loaded, and 
George and Betsey were stowed away in their 
baskets, both the father and Betsey had forgotten 
about the baby. The mother had got so far ahead 
that it took the other horses nearly an hour to 
overtake her s. 

" Where is the baby ? " cried the mother when 
she looked back and saw but two children on the 
horse behind. 

Sure enough, where was the baby } Lying under 
a tree top in the lonesome woods, where there might 
be fierce wolves, great panthers, or hungry wildcats. 

Mr. Craig was almost frantic when he thought of 
the baby's danger. He stripped the things from 
the middle horse, and sprang on his back, gun in 
hand. He laid whip to the horse, and was soon 
galloping back over the rough path. For more 
than an hour the mother and children waited with 
the hired man, to learn whether the baby had been 
killed by some wild animal or not. 

At last the sound of Mr. Craig's horse coming 
back was heard, and all held their breath. As the 
father came in sight in a full gallop, he shouted, 
" Here he is, safe and sound ! The little rascal 
hadn't waked up." 



128 

Mrs. Craig and Betsey shed tears of joy. George 
turned his face away, and wiped his eyes with his 
coat sleeve. He wasn't going to cry: he was a 
boy. 

ELIZABETH ZANE. 

On the banks of the Ohio River, near the place 
where the city of Wheeling now stands, there was 
once a fort called Fort Henry. This fort was of 
the kind called a blockhouse, which is a house 
built of logs made to fit close together. The 
upper part of the house jutted out beyond the 
lower, in order that the men in the blockhouse 
might shoot downwards at the Indians if they 
should come near the house to set it on fire. 
Fort Henry was surrounded with a stockade ; that 
is, a fence made by setting posts in the ground close 
together. 

During the Revolutionary War the Indians in 
the neighborhood of this fort were fighting on the 
side of the English. A large number of them 
came to Fort Henry, and tried to take it. All the 
men that were sent outside of the fort to fight the 
Indians were either killed, or kept from going back. 
The women and the children of the village which 
stood near had all gone into the fort for safety. 



129 

When at last the fiercest attack of the Indians 
was made, there were only twelve men and boys 
left inside of the fort. These men and boys had 
made up their minds to do their best to save the 
lives of the women and children who were with 
them. Every man and every boy in the fort knew 
how to shoot a rifle. They had guns enough, 
but they had very little powder. So they fired 
only when they were sure of hitting one of the 
enemy. 

The Indians kept shooting all the time. Some 
of them crept near to the blockhouse, and tried 
to shoot through the cracks, but the bullets of the 
men inside brought down these brave warriors. 

After many hours of fighting, the Indians went 
ofi a little way to rest. The white men had now 
used nearly all their gunpowder. They began to 
wish for a keg of powder that had been left in one 
of the houses outside. They knew that whoever 
should go for this would be seen and fired at by 
the Indians. He would have to run to the house 
and back again. The colonel called his men to- 
gether, and told them he did not wish to order any 
man to do so dano^erous a thino: as to get the 
powder, but he said he should like to have some 
one offer to go for it. 

Three or four young men offered to go. The 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 9 



I30 



colonel told them he could not spare more than 
one of them. They must settle among themselves 
which one should go. But each one of the brave 
fellows wanted to go, and none of them was will- 
ing to give up to another. Then there stepped 
forward a young woman named Elizabeth Zane. 
" Let me go for the powder," she said. 
The brave men were surprised. It would be a 
desperate thing for a man to go. Nobody had 
dreamed that a woman would venture to do such 
a thing, nor would any of them agree to let a 

young woman go into 
danger. 

colonel said, "No," 
her friends begged 
her not to run 
the risk. They 
toldher,besides, 
that any one of 
the young men 
could run faster 
than she could. 
But Eliza- 
beth said, " You 
cannot spare 




L_^ 



Elizabeth Zane's Return. 



a single man. 
There are not 



131 

enough men in the fort now. If I am killed, you 
will be as strong to fight as before. Let the 
young men stay where they are needed, and let me 
go for the powden" 

She had made up her mind, and nobody could 
persuade her not to go. So the gate of the fort 
was opened just wide enough for her to get out. 
Her friends gave her up to die. 

Some of the Indians saw the gate open, and saw 
the young woman running to the house, but they 
did not shoot at her. They probably thought that 
they would not waste a bullet on a woman. They 
could make her a prisoner at any time. 

She did not try to carry the powder keg, but she 
took the powder in a girls way. She filled her 
apron with it. When she came out of the house 
with her apron full of powder, and started to run 
back to the fort, the Indians fired at her. It 
happened that all of their bullets missed her. The 
gate was opened again, and she got safely into the 
fort. The men were glad that they had powder 
enough, and they all felt braver than ever, after they 
had seen what a girl could do. 

The Indians had seen the gate opened to let her 
out and to let her in again. They thought they 
could force the gate open; but they could not go 
and push against it, because the men in the block- 



132 

house would shoot them if they did. So they made 
a wooden cannon. They got a hollow log and 
stopped up one end of it. Then they went to the 
blacksmith's shop in the little village and got some 
chains. They tied these chains round the log to 
hold it together. They had no cannon balls, so, 
after putting gunpowder into the log, they put in 
stones and bits of iron. After dark that evening 
they dragged this wooden cannon up near to the 
gate. When all was ready, they touched off their 
cannon. The log cannon burst into pieces, and 
killed some of the Indians, but did not hurt the 
fort. 

The next day white men came from other places 
to help the men in the fort. They got into the fort, 
and after a few more attacks the Indians gave up 
the battle and went away. 

Whenever the story of the brave fight at Fort 
Henry is told, people do not forget that the bravest 
one in it was the girl that brought her apron full of 
gunpowder to the men in the fort. 



133 



THE RIVER PIRATES. 

A HUNDRED years ago the country near the great 
rivers in the interior of the United States was a 
wilderness. It contained only a few people, and 
these lived in settlements which were widely sepa- 
rated from one another. Hardly any of the great 
trees had been cut down. , 

There were no roads, except Indian trails through 
the woods. Nearly all travelers had to follow the 
rivers. Steamboats had not yet been invented. 
Travelers made journeys on flatboats, keel boats, 
and barges. It was easy enough to go down the 
Ohio and the Mississippi in this way, but it was 
hard to come up again. It took about fifty men 
to work a boat against the stream, and many 
months were spent in going up the river. 

Boats were pushed up the river by means of 
poles. The boatmen pushed these against the 
bottom of the river. When the water was deep or 
the current very swift, a rope was taken out ahead 
of the boat, and tied to a tree on the bank. The 
line was then slowly drawn in by means of a 
capstan, and this drew the boat forward. 

Sometimes the boat was " cordelled," or towed by 
the men walking on the shore and drawing the 



134 

barge by a rope held on their shoulders. But when 
there chanced to be a strong wind blowing up- 
stream, the boatmen would hoist sail, and joyfully 
make headway against the current without so much 
toil. 

These slow-going boats were in danger from 
Indians. They were in even greater danger from 
robbers, who hid themselves along the shore. Some 
of these robbers lived in caves. Some kept boats 
hidden in the mouths of streams that flowed into 
the large rivers. 

In 1787 all the country west of the Mississippi 
still belonged to France. The French territory 
stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to what is now 
Minnesota. It was all called Louisiana. New 
Orleans and St. Louis were then French towns, 
and the travel between them was carried on by 
means of boats, which floated down the stream, and 
were then brought back by poles, ropes, and sails. 

The trip was as long as a voyage to China is 
nowadays. The boats or barges set out from 
St. Louis in the spring, carrying furs. They got 
back again in the fall with goods purchased in 
New Orleans. 

In this year, 1787, a barge belonging to a Mr. 
Beausoleil (bo-so-lay) started from New Orleans to 
make the voyage to St. Louis. The goods with 



135 

which it was loaded were very valuable. Slowly 
the men toiled up against the stream day after day. 
At length the little vessel came near to the mouth 
of Cottonwood Creek. A well-known robber band 
lurked at this place. With joy the boatmen saw a 
favorable wind spring up. They spread their sails, 
and the driving gale carried the barge in safety 
past the mouth of the creek. 

But the pirates of Cottonwood Creek were 
unwilling to lose so rich a treasure. They sent 
a company of men by a short cut overland to head 
off the barge at a place farther up the river. Two 
days after passing Cottonwood Creek the barge- 
men brought the boat to land. They felt them- 
selves beyond danger. But the robbers came 
suddenly out of the woods, took possession of 
the boat, and ordered the crew to return down the 
river to Cottonwood Creek. 

When they turned back toward the robbers' den, 
Beausoleil was in despair. His whole fortune was 
on the barge. He did not know whether the rob- 
bers would kill him and his men, or not The only 
man of the crew who showed no regret was the 
cook. This cook was a fine-looking and very 
intelligent mulatto slave named Cacasotte. In- 
stead of repining, he fell to dancing and laughing. 

" I am glad the boat was taken," he cried. " I 



136 

have been beaten and abused long enough. Now 
I am freed from a hard master." 

Cacasotte devoted himself to his new masters, 
the robbers. In a little while he had won their 
confidence. He was permitted to go wherever he 
pleased, without any watch upon his movements. 

He found a chance to talk with Beausoleil, and 
to lay before him a plan for retaking the boat from 
the villains. Beausoleil thought the undertaking 
too dangerous, but at length he gave his consent. 
Cacasotte then whispered his plan to two others of 
the crew. 

Dinner was served to the pirates on deck. 
Cacasotte took his place by the bow of the boat, so 
as to be near the most dangerous of the robbers. 
This robber was a powerful man, well armed. 
When Cacasotte saw that the others had taken 
their places as he had directed, he gave the signal, 
and then pushed the huge robber at his side 
into the water. In three minutes the powerful 
Cacasotte had thrown fourteen of the robbers into 
the waves. The other men had also done their 
best. The deck was cleared of the pirates, who 
had to swim for their lives. The robbers who 
remained in the boat were too few to resist. Beau- 
soleil found himself again master of his barge, 
thanks to the coolness and courage of Cacasotte. 



137 

But the bargemen dared not go on up the river. 
Against the stream they would have to go slowly, 
and there would be danger from the robbers remain- 
ing at Cottonwood Creek : so they kept on down the 
river to New Orleans. 

The next year ten boats left New Orleans in 
company. These barges carried small cannons, and 
their crew were all armed. When they reached 
Cottonwood Creek, men were seen on shore ; but 
when an armed force was landed, the robbers 
had fled. The long, low hut which had been 
their dwelling remained. There were also several 
flatboats loaded with valuable goods taken from 
captured barges. This plunder was carried to St. 
Louis, and restored to the rightful owners. For 
fifty years afterwards this was known as " The Year 
of the Ten Boats." Cacasotte's brave victory was 
not soon forgotten. 



OLD-FASHIONED TELEGRAPHS. 

THE MUSKET TELEGRAPH. 

There are many people living who can remem- 
ber when there were no telegraphs such as we have 
now. The telephone is still younger. Railroads 
are not much older than telegraphs. Horses and 



138 

stagecoaches were slow. How did people send 
messages quickly when there were no telegraph 
wires ? 

When colonies in America were first settled by 
white people, there were wars with the Indians. 
The Indians would creep into a neighborhood and 
kill all the people they could, and then they would 
get away before the soldiers could overtake them. 
But the white people made a plan to catch them. 

Whenever the Indians attacked a settlement, the 
settler who saw them first took his gun and fired it 
three times. Bang, bang, bang! went the gun. 
The settlers who lived near the man who fired 
the gun heard the sound. They knew that three 
shots following one another quickly, meant that the 
Indians had come. 

Every settler who heard the three shots took his 
gun and fired three times. It was bang, bang, bang ! 
again. Then, as soon as he had fired, he went in 
the direction of the first shots. Every man who 
had heard three shots, fired three more, and went 
toward the shots he had heard. Farther and 
farther away the settlers heard the news, and sent 
it along by firing so that others might hear. Soon 
little companies of men were coming swiftly in every 
direction. The Indians were sure to be beaten off 
or killed. 



139 

This was a kind of telegraph. But there were 
no wires ; there was no electricity ; only one flint- 
lock musket waking up another flintlock musket, 
till a hundred guns had been fired, and a hundred 
men were marching to the battle. 



TELEGRAPHING BY FIRE. 

The firing of signal guns was telegraphing by 
sound. It used only the hearing. But there were 
other ways of telegraphing that used the sight. 
These have been known for thousands of years. 
They were known even to savage people. 

The Indians on the plains use fires to telegraph 
to one another. Sometimes they build one fire, 
sometimes they build many. When a war party, 
coming back from battle, builds five fires on a hill, 
the Indians who see it know that the party has 
killed five enemies. 

But the Indians have also what are known as 
smoke signals. An Indian who wishes to send a 
message to a party of his friends a long way off, 
builds a fire. When it blazes, he throws an armful 
of green grass on it. This causes the fire to send 
up a stream of white smoke hundreds of feet high, 
which can be seen fifty miles away in clear weather. 
Among the Apaches, one column of smoke is to call 



140 



attention ; two columns say, " All is well, and we 
are going to remain in this camp;" three columns 



IlilJI^IIjllllll^^^^ 'niiHIHIIji^ 



or more are a sign of dan- 
ger, and ask for help. 
Sometimes longer mes- 
^■'^ sages are sent. After 
building a fire and put- 
1 ting green grass upon it, 
I the Indian spreads his 
blanket over it. He holds 
down the edges, to shut 




A Smoke Signal 



141 

the smoke in. After a few moments he takes his 
blanket off ; and when he does this, a great puff of 
smoke, like a balloon, shoots up into the air. This 
the Indian does over and over. One puff of smoke 
chases another upward. By the number of these 
puffs, and the length of the spaces between them, 
he makes his meaning understood by his friends 
many miles away. 

At night the Indians smear their arrows with 
something that will burn easily. One of them 
draws his bow. Just as he is about to let his arrow 
fly, another one touches it with fire. The arrow 
blazes as it shoots through the air, like a fiery 
dragon fly. One burning arrow follows another; 
and those who see them read these telegraph sig- 
nals, and know what is meant. 



TELEGRAPHS IN THE REVOLUTION. 

Our forefathers sometimes used fire to telegraph 
with in the Revolution. Whenever the British 
troops started on a raid into New Jersey, the watch- 
men on the hilltops lighted great beacon fires. 
Those who saw the fires lighted other fires farther 
away. These fires let the people know that the 
enemy was coming, for light can travel much faster 
than men on horseback. 



142 

Have you heard the story of Paul Revere? 
When the British were about to send troops from 
Boston to Lexington, Revere and his friends had 
an understanding with the people in Charlestown. 
Revere was to let them know when the troops 
should march. They were to watch a certain church 
steeple. If one lantern were hung in the steeple, it 
would mean that the British were marching by land. 
If two lanterns were seen, the Charlestown people 
would know that the troops were leaving Boston by 
water. Revere was sent as a messeno:er to Lexinsr- 
ton. He sent a friend of his to hang up the lanterns 
in the church steeple. 

" Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, 
To the belfry chamber overhead. 
And startled the pigeons from their perch 
On the somber rafters, that round him made 
Masses and moving shapes of shade, — 
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, 
To the highest window in the wall, 
Where he paused to listen and look down 
A moment on the roofs of the town, 
And the moonlight flowing over all." 

Long before Paul Revere got across the water in 
his little boat, the people on the other side had seen 
the lanterns in the tower. They knew the British 



were coming, and were all astir 
when Paul Revere got over. Re- 
vere rode on to Lexington and 
beyond, to alarm the people. 

The lines above are from a 
poem of Longfellow's about this 
ride. The poem is very interest- 
ing, but it does not tell the story 
quite correctly. 

Paul Revere's lanterns were 
used at the beginning of the Revo- 
lutionary War. There is a story of 
a different sort of telegraph used 
when the war was near its end. 
It is told by a British officer who 
had not the best means of know- 
ing whether it was true or not. 
But it shows what kind of tele- 
graphs were used in that day 
This is the story : — 

A British army held New 
York. Another British army 
under Cornwallis was at 
Yorktown in Virginia. 
General Washinston 



had marched to York- 



town. He was trying 




Old North Church Steeple. 



144 

to capture the army of General Cornwallis. He 
was afraid that ships and soldiers would be sent 
from New York to help Cornwallis. But there 
were men in New York who were secretly on 
Washington's side. One of these was to let him 
know when ships should sail to help Cornwallis. 

But Washington was six hundred miles away 
from New York. How could he get the news 
before the English ships should get there ? There 
were no telegraphs. The fastest horses ridden one 
after another could hardly have carried news to him 
in less than two weeks. But Washington had a plan. 
One of the men who sent news to Washington was 
living in New York. When the ships set sail, he 
went up on the top of his house and hoisted a 
white flag, or something that looked like a white 

flag. 

On the other side of the Hudson River in a little 
village a man was watching this very house. As 
soon as he saw the white flag flapping, he took up 
his eun and fired it. Farther off there was a man 
waiting to hear this gun. When he heard it, he 
fired another gun. Farther on there was the crack 
of another, and then another gun. By the firing of 
one gun after another the news went southward. 
Banff, bane ! went sfun after gun across the whole 
State of New Jersey. Then guns in Pennsylvania 



145 

took it up and sent the news onward. Then on 
across the State of Maryland the news went from 
one gun to another, till it reached Virginia, where it 
passed on from gun to gun till it got to Yorktown. 
In less than two days Washington knew that ships 
were coming. 

When Washington knew that British ships were 
coming, he pushed the fighting at Yorktown with 
all his might. When the English ships got to 
Chesapeake Bay at last, Cornwallis had already 
surrendered. The United States was free. The 
ships had come too late. 

A boy's telegraph. 

The best telegraph known before the use of elec- 
tricity, was invented by two schoolboys in France. 
They were brothers named Chappe (shap-pay). 
They were in different boarding schools some miles 
apart, and the rules of their schools did not allow 
them to write letters to each other. But the two 
schools were in sight of each other. The brothers 
invented a telegraph. They put up poles-with bars 
of wood on them. These bars would turn on pegs 
or pins. The bars were turned up or down, or one 
up and another down, or two down and one up, and 
so on. Every movement of the bars meant a letter. 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — lO 



146 

In this way the two brothers talked to each other, 
though they were miles apart. When the boys be- 
came men, they sold their plan to the French 
Governmento The money they got made their 
fortunCo 

About the time they were selling this plan to 




A Mail Carrier 

the French Government, a boy named Samuel 
Morse was born in this country. Fifty years later 
this Samuel Morse set up the first Morse electric 
telegraph, which is the one we now use. 

In the old days before telegraph wires were 
strung all over the country, it took weeks to carry 



147 

news to places far away. There were no railroads, 
and the mails had to travel, slowly. A boy on a 
horse trotted along the road to carry the mail bags 
to country places. From one large city to another, 
the mails were carried by stagecoaches. 

When the people had voted for President, it was 
weeks before the news of the election could be 
srathered in. Then it took other weeks to let the 

o 

people in distant villages know the name of the 
new President. Nowadays a great event is known 
in almost every part of the country on the very day 
it happens. 



A BOY'S FOOLISH ADVENTURE. 

The Natural Bridge has long been thought one 
of the great curiosities of our country. It is in 
Virginia, and the county in which it is situated 
is called Rockbridge County. 

The traveler is riding in a stage on a wild road 
in the mountains. The road grows narrow. Soon 
it is a mere lane, with high board fences and small 
trees on each side. But the traveler sees nothing 
to show him that he is on the wonderful Natural 
Bridge. 

The bridge that he is driving over is about 



148 




The Natural Bridge. 



149 

forty feet thick, and of solid rock. If he should go 
to the other side of the board fence, he could look 
down into a ravine more than two hundred feet 
deep. 

When the traveler goes down into the ravine, 
he looks up at the beautiful curve of this great 
bridge of rock. The bridge is nearly one hundred 
and seventy-five feet above his head. 

Many years ago, when the writer of this book 
was a boy, he stood in the dark chasm under- 
neath this bridge and looked up at the great 
bridge of rock above. He took a stone, as all 
other visitors do, and tried to throw it sd as to hit 
the arch of the bridge above. But the stone 
stopped before it got halfway up, and fell back, 
resounding on the rocks below. Then he was 
told the old story, that nobody had ever thrown 
to the arch except George Washington, who had 
thrown a silver dollar clear to the center of the 
bridge. 

There were names scribbled all over the rocks. 
People are always trying to write their own names 
in such strange places as this. Above all the other 
names were two rows of mere scratches. If they had 
ever been names, they were too much dimmed to 
be read by a person standing on the rocks below. 
The lower of these two high names, the people 



ISO 

said, was the name of Washington. It was said 
that when he was a young man, he dimbed higher 
than any one else to scratch his name on the rock. 
And the name above his, they said, was the name 
of a young man who had had a strange adventure 
in trying to write his name above that of the 
father of his country. 

The story of this young man's chmbing up the 
rocks used to appear in the old schoolbooks. It 
was told with so many romantic additions, that it 
was hard to believe. 

The writer afterwards . learned that the main 
fact of the story was true, and that the hero of 
the story was still living in Virginia. 

This foolhardy boy, whose name was Pepper, 
climbed up the rock to write his name above 
the rest. Pepper climbed up by holding to little 
broken places in the rocks till he had got above 
the names of all the other climbers. He ventured 
to climb till he had passed the marks which people 
say are part of Washington's name. Here Pepper 
held fast with one hand, while he scratched his 
name in the rock. 

His companions were far below him. He could 
not get down again. The rock face was too 
smooth. He could not stoop to put his hands 
down into the cracks where his feet were. If he 



151 

had tried to, he would have lost his hold, and been 
dashed to pieces on the rocks below. 

There was nothing to do now but to climb out 
from under the bridge, and so up the face of the 
rock to the top of the gorge. He must do this or 
die. 

Painfully clinging to the rock with his toes and 
his fingers, he worked his way up. Sometimes a 
crevice in the rock helped him. Sometimes he had 
to dig a place with his knife in order to get a hold. 
It seemed that each step would be his last. 

The few people living in the neighborhood heard 
of his situation, and gathered below and above to 
look at him. They watched him with breathless 
anxiety. His friends expected to see him dashed 
to pieces at any moment. 

As the time wore on, he worked his way up. He 
also got farther out from under the bridge. He 
held on like a cat. He hooked his fingers into 
every crack he could find. He dug holes with his 
dull knife. When he could find a little bush in 
the rocks, he thought himself lucky. 

Men let down ropes to him, but the ropes did 
not reach him. They tied one rope to another so 
as to reach farther down, but he was too far under 
the bridge. The people hardly dared to speak or 
to breathe. 



152 

At last he began to get out at the side of the 
bridge where he could be seen from above. His 
strength was almost gone. His knife was too 
much worn to be of any use. He could not cling 
to the rock much longer. 

A rope with a noose in it was swung close to 
him. He let go his grip on the rock, and threw his 
arms and body into the noose. In a moment he 
swung clear of the rock, and dangled in the air. 
The rope drew tight about his body and held him. 
Young Pepper knew no niore. He was drawn up 
over the rocks to the summit quite unconscious. 

Years afterward he became a man of distinction 
in his State. But when any of his friends asked 
Colonel Pepper about his climbing out from under 
the Natural Bridge, he would say, " Yes ; I did that 
when I was a foolish boy, but I don't like to think 
about it." 



A FOOT RACE FOR LIFE. 

In 1803 that part of our country which lies west 
of the Mississippi was almost unknown to the white 
men. In that year the President sent Captain 
Lewis and Captain Clark to see what the country 
was like. They went up the Missouri River 
and across the Rocky Mountains. Then they 



153 

went down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. 
It took them more than two years to make the trip 
there and back, 

Lewis and Clark had about forty-five men with 
them. One of these men was named Colter. In 
the very heart of the wild country he left the party, 
and set up as a trapper. A trapper is a man 
who catches animals in traps in order to get 
their skins to sell. The Blackfoot Indians made 
Colter a prisoner. Colter knew a little of their 
language. He heard them talking of how they 
should kill their prisoner. They thought it would 
be fun to set him up and shoot at him with their 
arrows until he was dead. At this time the Indians 
on the western plains had no guns. But the Indian 
chief thought he knew a better way. He laid hold 
of Colter's shoulder, and said, — 

" Can you run fast ^ " 

Colter could run very swiftly, but he pretended 
to the chief that he was a bad runner. So they 
took him out on the prairie about four hundred 
yards away from the Indians. There he was turned 
loose, and told to run. 

The whole band of Indians ran after him, yelling 
like wild beasts. Colter did not look back. He 
had to run through thorns that hurt his bare feet. 
But he was. running for his life. Six miles away 



154 



there was a river. If he could get to that, he might 
escape. 

He almost flew over the ground. At first he did 
not turn his head round. When he had run about 
three miles, he glanced back. Most of the Indians 

had lost ground. The 
best runners were 
ahead of the others. 
One Indian, swifter 
than all the rest, was 
only about a hundred 
yards behind him. 
This man had a spear 
. in his hand to kill 
Colter as soon as 
he should be near 
enough. 

Poor Colter now ran 
harder than ever to get away 
from this Indian. At last he was 
only about a mile from the river. He looked back, 
and saw the swift Indian only twenty yards away, 
with his spear ready to throw. 

It was of no use for Colter to keep on running. 
He turned round and faced the swift runner, who 
was about to throw his spear. Colter spread his 
arms wide, and stood still. 




'55 

The Indian was surprised at this. He tried to 
stop running, so as to kill the white man with his 
spear. But he had already run himself nearly to 
death, and, when he tried to stop quickly, he lost his 
balance, and fell forward to the ground. His lance 
stuck in the earth, and broke in two. 

Colter quickly pulled the pointed end of the 
spear out of the ground and killed the fallen Indian. 
Then he turned and ran on toward the river. 

The other Indians were coming swiftly behind; 
but, as they passed the place where the first one 
lay dead, each of them 'stopped a moment to howl 
over him, after their custom. This gave Colter a 
little more time. He reached a patch of woods 
near the riyer. He ran through this to the river, 
and jumped in He swam toward a little island. 

Logs and brush had floated down the river, and 
lodged across the island. This driftwood had 
formed a orreat raft. Colter dived under this 

O 

raft. He swam to a place where he could push 
his head up to get air, and still be hidden by the 
brush. 

The Indians were already yelling on the bank of 
the river. A moment later they were swimming 
toward the island. When they reached the drift 
pile, they ran this way and that. They looked into 
all the cracks and tried to find the white man. They 



156 

ran right over his hiding place. Colter thought 
they would surely find him. 

But after a long time they went away. Colter 
thought they would set fire to the raft of driftwood, 
but they did not think of that. Perhaps they 
thous^ht that Colter had been drowned. 

He lay still under the raft till night came. Then 
he swam down the stream a long distance, left 
the stream, and went far out on the prairie. Here 
he felt himself safe from his enemies. 

But he had no clothes and no food. He had no 
gun to shoot animals with. It was several days' 
journey to the nearest place where there were 
white men, at a trading house. 

Colter had nothing to eat but roots. The sun 
burned his skin in the daytime. He shivered with- 
out a covering at night. The thorns hurt his feet 
when he walked, but he found his way to the trading 
house at last. 

He used to tell of wonderful things that he saw 
while traveling to the trading house after he got 
away from the Indians. He saw springs that were 
boiling hot and steaming. He saw fountains that 
would sometimes spout hot water into the air for 
hundreds of feet. 

These and many other wonderful things that he 
saw at this time he used to tell about. But nobody 



157 

believed his stories. Nobody 
had ever seen anything of -the 
kind in this country. When 
Colter would tell of these 
things, those who heard him 
thought that he was making 
up stories, or that he had been 
out of his head while travel- 
ing and had thought he saw 
such wonders. 

But after many long years 
the wonderful place which we 
call Yellowstone Park was 
found, and in it were boiling 
and spouting springs. People 
knew then that Colter had 
been telling the truth, and that 
he had traveled through the 
Yellowstone country. 




/\ Uey^er. 



158 



LORETTO AND HIS WIFE. 

In old times white men had not made settle- 
ments in the country near the Rocky Mountains. 
Tribes of Indians fought one another over that 
whole region. A few bold white men, fond of 
wild life, lived there, in order to hunt and trap 
the animals that bear furs. But they themselves 
were always in danger of being hunted by the 
Indians. 

The Indians called Blackfeet and those called 
Crows were at war. They stole each other's 
horses at every chance, and the Indians of each 
tribe were always seeking to kill those of the other. 

In one of their attacks on the Blackfeet, the 
Crows carried off an Indian grirl. One of the 
bold trappers of the Rocky Mountains was a 
Mexican. His name was Loretto. He visited a 
Crow village once, and saw this girl. He fell in 
love with the captive, and bought her from the 
Crows. Whether he paid for her in horses or in 
beaver skins, I do not know. But from a slave of 
the enemies of her tribe she was changed to the 
wife of a white man who loved her. 

Loretto was hired to trap for the Rocky Moun- 
tain Fur Company. This company bought furs 



159 

from the Indians of the Far West. They sent 
large parties to the mountains every year with 
guns, knives, hatchets, blankets, and other things, 
which they traded to the Indians for skins. 

Loretto was marching over the plains with a 
party of trappers belonging to this company. He 
had his young Blackfoot wife and his baby with 
him. The white men were much afraid of the 
Blackfoot Indians. The company that Loretto 
was with examined every ravine that they passed, 
for fear that the Indians would surprise them. 

One day a band of the Blackfoot tribe appeared 
on the prairie, but they kept near some rocks to 
which they could easily retire. They made signs of 
friendship. The trappers also made friendly signs. 
Then the Blackfeet sent out a party with a pipe 
of peace. The white men sent out a party to meet 
them. They smoked the pipe in the open ground 
between the two companies. This is the Indian 
way of making peace. 

Of course, Loretto's wife was much interested in 
the Blackfeet. They were her own people. It had 
been a long- time since she had seen one of them. 
She looked closely at the company smoking to- 
gether, and saw that one of them was her brother. 
She handed the child to Loretto. Then she rushed 
out to the place where the treaty was going on, and 



i6o 




i6i 

her brother threw his arms about her with the 
greatest affection. 

But just at that moment, Bridger, the captain of 
the white men, rode out where the pipe was being 
smoked. He had his rifle across the pommel of 
his saddle. The chief of the Blackfeet came up to 
shake hands with him. Bridger was afraid the 
chief meant to hurt him, so he slyly cocked his 
rifle. The chief heard the click, and seized the 
gun. He bent it downwards, and the gun went off, 
shootino- a bullet into the grround. The chief took 
the gun and knocked Bridger off his horse with it. 
Then he mounted Bridger's horse and galloped 
back to his Indians. Indians and white men now 
sot behind the rocks and trees which were not far 
away, and began to shoot at each other. 

Loretto's wife was carried away by her tribe. In 
vain she struggled to get free, and begged to be 
allowed to cro back to her husband and child. The 
Indians would not let her go. 

Loretto saw her struoo-les, and heard her cries. 
He took his child, and ran to the Indians with it. 
He handed the child to its mother. The Indian 
bullets and arrows were flying all about him. 

The chief saw him carry the child across the 
open ground, and his heart was touched. It was a 
noble action. 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — II 



l62 

He said to Loretto, " You are crazy to go into 
such danger, but go back in peace ; you shall not 
be hurt." 

Loretto begged to be allowed to take his wife 
with him, but her brother would not let her go, and 
the chief now began to look angry. 

" The girl belongs to her tribe," he said. " She 
shall not go back." 

Loretto wanted to stay with his wife, but she 
begged him to go back, lest he should be killed 
on the spot. At last he left her, and went back 
to the white men. 

Night came on, and the Indians drew off. Not 
much harm had been done to anybody. 

Loretto could not be happy without his wife. 
A few months later, he settled his accounts with 
the Fur Company and went away. He went 
boldly into one of the villages of the savage 
Blackfeet. Here he found his wife, and staid 
with her. 

When the white men made peace with the 
Blackfeet, they set up a trading house among 
them. Loretto joined the traders. They were 
glad to have him, because he could speak the 
language of the tribe. 



1 63 



A BLACKFOOT STORY. 

Here is a story the Indians tell. It is one of the 
tales with which they amuse themselves in long 
evenings. It may be true. At least, the Indians 
tell it for true. 

An Indian chief of the tribe called Blackfoot, or 
Blackfeet, went over the Rocky Mountains with a 
war party. He killed some of the enemies of his 
tribe, and then started back. For fear their enemies 
would follow their tracks, the party did not take the 
usual path. They went up over the wildest part of 
the mountain. But when it came to going down 
on the other side, the Indians had a hard time. 

They had to clamber over great rocks and down 
the sides of cliffs. Drifts of snow blocked their 
way in places. At last they had to stop. They 
stood on the edge of a cliff. Below this cliff was 
a ridge or shelf of rock. By tying themselves 
together, and so helping one another down, they 
got to this shelf. Below this they found still 
another cliff. It was harder to get down to this. 

But when they had got down as far as this ledge, 
they were in a worse plight than ever. They stood 
on the brink of a great cliff. The rocks were too 
steep for them to get down. It was hundreds of 
feet to the bottom. 



164 

They tried to get back up the mountain, but that 
they could not do. Then they sat down and looked 
over the brink of the cliff. There was no chance 
for them to get down alive. They must stay there 
and starve. 

The Indians filled their pipes with kinnikinnick, 
or willow bark, and smoked. Then they knocked 
the ashes out of their pipes, and lay down to sleep. 

But the chief did not sleep. He could not think 
of any way of getting out of the trouble. When 
morning came, they all went and looked over the 
cliff once more. Then they smoked again. After 
sitting silent for some time, the chief laid down his 
pipe quietly, got to his feet, and went to painting 
his face as if he were getting ready for a feast. He 
arranged his dress with the greatest care. Then 
he made a little speech. 

" It is of no use to stay here and die," he said. 
" The Great Spirit is not willing that we should get 
away. Let us die bravely." 

He added other remarks of the same kind. Then 
he sang his death song. When this was finished, 
he gave a shout, and leaped over the cliff. 

When the chief had gone, the others sat down 
and smoked ao-ain in silence. After a Ions: time, a 
weather-beaten old Indian got up and walked to 
the edge of the cliff. 



165 



" See," he said, " there is the soul of our chief, 
waiting for us to go with him to the land of spirits." 

The others looked over, and saw the form of a 
man far below, waving the bough of a tree. 

The old warrior 
now threw off his 
blanket and sang his 
death song. Then 
he leaped off. The 
others again looked 
over, and this time 
they saw two forms 
beckoning to them 
from below. 

One after another 
the Indians jumped, 
until there were left 
but two young men 
who were little more 
than boys. These two 
boys were nephews of the chief, 
been in a war party. 

The elder of the two showed his young brother 
the ghosts of the whole party standing below. He 
told his brother he must jump off, but the frightened 
boy begged to be allowed to stay and die en the 
bare rock. 




They had never 



i66 

The elder seized him, and, after a struggle, pushed 
him over. Then he quietly gathered up all the 
blankets and guns, and threw them off. He 
thought the souls of his friends would need these 
things in their journey to the land of spirits. 

When this was done, the young man sang his 
• own death song and jumped off. Falling swiftly as 
an arrow, feet downward, he struck a great snow 
drift at the bottom. It received him like an im- 
mense feather bed. He sank in so far that he had 
hard work to get out. When he had succeeded, he 
found all of his party, not spirits, as he had expected, 
but living men, safe and sound. The snow had 
saved them from injury. 

HOW FREMONT CROSSED THE MOUNTAINS. 

It is many years now since Captain Fremont 
made his great journey over plains and mountains 
to California. At that time California belonged to 
Mexico. The wild country east of it belonged 
to the United States. There were hardly any 
roads and no railroads in the country west of the 
Missouri River. Fremont was sent out to explore 
that country; that is, he was sent to find out what 
kind of a country it was. The white people knew 
very little about it. 



i67 

Fremont had a large party of men with many 
horses. After months of travel he found himself 
near the great Californian mountains. These 
mountains are called the Sierra Nevada, or " Snowy 
Range." 

Here some Indians came to see him. He had 
a talk with them by signs, for he could not speak 
their language. They told him he could cross the 
mountains in summer. They said it was " six 
sleeps " to the place where the white men lived 
over the mountains. They meant that a man 
would have to pass six nights on the road in going 
there. But it was now winter, and they told him 
that no man could cross in the winter. They held 
their hands above their heads to show him that 
the snow was deeper than a man is tall. 

But Fremont told the Indians that the horses of 
the white men were strong, and that he would go 
over the mountains. He showed them some bright- 
colored cloths, which he said he would give to any 
Indian who would go along as a guide. The 
Indians called in a young man who said he had been 
over the mountains and had seen the white people 
on the other side. He agreed to go with Fremont. 
Fremont now talked to his men, and told them 
there was a beautiful valley on the other side of the 
mountains, — the valley of the Sacramento. He told 



i68 

them that Captain Sutter had moved to this valley 
from Missouri, and had become a rich man. It 
was but seventy miles to Sutter's Fort. The men 
agreed to try to cross the mountains. 

They had but little left to eat. They killed a 
dog and ate it that very evening. They would not 
have much chance to get food in crossing the 
mountains, but they started in bravely the next 
morning. They did not talk much. They knew 
that it was very dangerous to cross the mountains 
in February. 

For days and days they fought their way through 
the snow, which got deeper and deeper as they 
went higher up into the mountains. Traveling 
grew harder and harder. The horses had nothing 
to eat but what could be found in little patches of 
grass where the wind had blown the snow off the 
ground. Whenever a horse or mule grew too 
weak to travel, the men killed it and ate it- 
One day an old Indian came to see them. He 
told them they must not go on. He said, " Rock 
upon rock, rock upon rock, snow upon snow, snow 
upon snow, and even if you get over the snow, you 
will not be able to get down the mountain on the 
other side." 

He made signs to show them that the walls of 
rock were straight up and down, and that the horses 



1 69 

would slip off. This frightened the Indians in 
Fremont's company, and one Indian covered up 
his head and moaned while the old man was 
talking. 

The young Indian guide was afraid to go on. 
He ran away the next day, taking all the pretty 
things that Fremont had given him, and a blanket 
that Fremont had lent him to keep warm. 

The men now made snowshoes, so that they 
could walk over the snow without sinking in. 
Sleds were made to draw the baggage on, for the 
horses were getting too weak to carry anything. 
They found the snow twenty feet deep in some 
places. The men had to make great mauls or 
pounders to beat down the snow, to make a hard 
road on which the animals could travel. Fremont's 
men now grew very hungry, for they had little to 
eat except when they killed a starving mule or 
a dog. 

At last the whole party reached the top of the 
mountains at a place where they were nine thou- 
sand feet high. They had been three weeks in 
getting to the top. They had yet the hard task of 
getting down on the other side. But they could 
see the beautiful country of California below them. 
They began to work their way down over the snow 
and rocks. 



I70 

After some days Fremont took a party of eight 
men, and went on to get provisions for the rest. 
But for a long distance he found no grass, and his 
animals began to give out One of his men grew 
so hungry and tired that he became insane for a 
while. Another got lost from the party, and found 
them only after several days. He told the rest that 
he had suffered so much from hunger that he ate 
small toads, and even let the large ants creep upon 
his hands so that he could eat them. 

One day Fremont saw some Indian huts. The 
Indians ran away when they saw the white men 
coming. Fremont found near these huts some 
great baskets as big as hogsheads filled with 
acorns. Inside the huts he found smaller baskets 
with roasted acorns in them. The men took about 
half a bushel of these roasted acorns, and left a 
shirt, some handkerchiefs, and some trinkets, to 
pay for them. 

At last they came to a place where there were 
paths, and tracks of cattle. The horses, having 
found grass to eat, grew strong enough for the 
men to ride them. One day Fremont found some 
Indians, one of whom could speak Spanish. 

The Indian said, " I am a herdsman, and work 
for Captain Sutter." 

" Where does he live ^ " 



171 

"Just over the hill. I will show you." 
In a short time Fremont and his white men 
were at the house of Sutten But Captain Fre- 
mont rested only one night. The next morning 
he started back with food for his starving men,' 
who were coming on behind. The second day 
after he left Sutter's he met his men. 

They were a sad sight. They were all on foot. 
Each man was leading a horse as weak and lean 
as he was himself. Many of the horses had fallen 
off the rocks, and had been killed. Only half of 
the mules and horses that had started over the 
mountains had lived to get across. As soon as 
Fremont met his men, he told them to camp. He 
fed the poor starving fellows beef and bread and 
fresh salmon. The next day they all reached the 
beautiful Sacramento River, where the city of 
Sacramento now stands. 



FINDING GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 

California once belonged to Mexico. Then 
there was a war .between this country and Mexico. 
This is what we call the Mexican Wan During that 
war the United States took California away from 
Mexico. It is now one of the richest and most 



172 

beautiful States in the Union. In the old days, 
when California belonged to Mexico, it was a 
quiet country. Nearly all the white people spoke 
Spanish, which is the language of Mexico. They 
lived mostly by raising cattle. In those days people 
did not know that there was gold in California. A 
little gold had been found in the southern part 
of the State, but nobody expected to find valuable 
gold mines. A few people from the United States 
had settled in the country. They also raised cattle. 

Some time after the United States had taken 
California, peace was made with Mexico. California 
then became a part of our country. About the 
time that this peace was made, something happened 
which made a great excitement all over the country. 
It changed the history of our country, and changed 
the business of the whole world. Here is the story 
of it : — 

A man named Sutter had moved from Missouri 
to California. He built a house which was called 
Sutter's Forto It was where the city of Sacramento 
now stands. Sutter had many horses and oxen, 
and he owned thousands of acres of land. He 
traded with the Indians, and carried on other kinds 
of business. 

But everything was done in the slow Mexican 
way. When he wanted boards, he sent men to saw 



173 

them out by hand. It took two men a whole day 
to saw up a log so as to make a dozen boards. 
There was no sawmill in all California. 

When Sutter wanted to grind flour or meal, this 
also was done in the Mexican way. A large stone, 
roller was run over a flat stone. But at last Sutter 
thouo^ht he would have a s:rindinQ^ mill of the Ameri- 
can sort. To build this, he needed boards. He 
thought he would first build a sawmill. Then he 
could get boards quickly for his grinding mill, and 
have lumber to use for otlier things. 

Sutter sent a man named Marshall to build his 
sawmill. It was to be built forty miles away from 
Sutter's Forto The mill had to be where there were 
trees to saw. 

Marshall was a very good carpenter, who could 
build almost anything. He had some men working 
with him. After some months they got the mill 
done. This mill was built to run by water. 

But when he started it, the mill did not run well. 
Marshall saw that he must disf a ditch below the 
great water wheel, to carry off the water. He 
hired wild Indians to dig the ditch. 

When the Indians had partly dug this ditch, 
Marshall went out one January morning to look 
at it. The clear water was running through the 
ditch. It had washed away the sand, leaving the 



174 

pebbles bare. At the bottom of the water Marshall 
saw something yellow. It looked like brass. He 
put his hand down into the water and took up- this 
bright, yellow thing. It was about the size and 
shape of a small pea. Then he looked, and found 
another pretty little yellow bead at the bottom of 
the ditch. 

Marshall trembled all over. It might be gold. 
But he remembered that there is another yellow 
substance that looks like gold. It is called "fool's 
gold." He was afraid he had only found fool's 
gold. 

Marshall knew that if it was gold it would not 
break easily. He laid one of the pieces on a stone; 
then he took another stone and hammered it. It 
was soft, and did not break. If it had broken to 
pieces, Marshall would have known that it was 
not gold. 

In a few days the men had dug up about three 
ounces of the yellow stuff. They had no means of 
making sure it was gold. 

Then Marshall got on a horse and set out for 
Sutter's Fort, carrying the yellow metal with him. 
He traveled as fast as the rough road would let 
him. He rode up to Sutter's in the evening, all 
spattered with mud. 

He told Captain Sutter that he wished to see him 



175 




Weighing the First Gold. 



alone. Marshall's eyes looked wild, and Sutter was 
afraid that he was crazy. But he went to a room 
with him. Then Marshall wanted the door locked. 
Sutter could not think what was the matter with 
the man. 

When he was sure that nobody else would come 
in, Marshall poured out in a heap on the table the 
little yellow beads that he had brought. 

Sutter thought it was gold, but the men did not 
know how to tell whether it was pure or not. At 



1/6 

last they hunted up a book that told how heavy 
gold is. Then they got a pair of scales and 
weighed the gold, putting silver dollars in the 
other end of the scales for weights. Then they 
held one end of the scales under water and 
weighed the gold. By finding how much lighter 
it was in the water than out of the water, they 
found that it was pure gold. 

All the men at the mill promised to keep the 
secret. They were all digging up gold when not 
working in the mill. As soon as the mill should 
be done, they were going to wash gold. 

But the secret could not be kept. A teamster 
who came to the mill was told about it. He got 
a few grains of the precious gold. 

When the teamster got back to Sutter's Fort, 
he went to a store to buy a bottle of whisky, 
but he had no money. The storekeeper would 
not sell to him without money. The teamster 
then took out some grains of gold. The store- 
keeper was surprised. He let the man have what 
he wanted. The teamster would not tell where he 
got the gold. But after he had taken two or 
three -drinks of the whisky, he was not able to 
keep his secret. He soon told all he knew about 
the finding of gold at Sutter's Mill. 

The news spread like fire in dry grass. Men 



177 

rushed to the mill in the mountains to find gold. 
Gold was also found at other places. Merchants 
in the towns of California left their stores. Me- 
chanics laid down their tools, and farmers left 
their fields, to dig gold. Some got rich in a few 
weeks. Others were not so lucky. 

Soon the news went across the continent. 
It traveled also to other countries. More than 
one hundred thousand men went to California 
the first year after gold was found, and still more 
poured in the next year. Thousands of men went 
through the Indian country with wagons. Of 
course, there were no railroads to the west in 
that day. 

Millions and millions of dollars' worth of gold 
was dug. In a short time California became 
a rich State. Railroads were built across the 
country. Ships sailed on the Pacific Ocean to 
carry on the trade of this great State. Every 
nation of the earth had gold from California. 

And it all started from one little, round, yellow 
bead of gold, that happened to lie shining at the 
bottom of a ditch, on a cold morning not so very 
long ago. 



EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 12 



178 



DESCENDING THE GRAND CANYON. 

The Colorado River is the strangest river in the 
United States. For hundreds of miles it runs 
through channels in solid rocks. These channels 
are often thousands of feet deep. In some places 
the rocks rise straight up like walls. These walls 
are quite bare. There are no trees and no grass on 
them. There is not even any moss to be seen. 
The bare rocks are of many colors. When the sun- 
light strikes upon them, they are as beautiful as 
flowers and as gorgeous as the clouds, we are told. 

These deep cuts, through which the river runs, 
are called canyons. The longest of them is called 
the Grand Canyon (see frontispiece). It is about 
two hundred miles long. In some places it is more 
than a mile and a quarter deep. The river runs 
at the bottom of this deep ravine. It rushes over 
rapids, and plunges over falls. Sometimes there 
is a little strip of rock like a shelf at the edge of 
the river. In many places the walls of rock rise 
straight from the water, and there is no place where 
a man can put his feet. 

Major Powell resolved to go through this canyon 
in boats. No boat had ever gone down this deep, 
dark channel. Two men, running away from 



179 

Indians, had once gone into it on a raft. The raft 
was dashed over rapids and waterfalls. The pro- 
visions of the men were washed overboard. One of 
the men was drowned, and the other at last floated 
out at the lower end of the canyon more dead than 
alive. 

Being a man of science. Major Powell wanted to 
find out about the Grand Canyon. He knew that 
it would be a fearful journey. He and his men 
might all be lost, but they made up their minds to 
try to go through. 

They did not know how long the canyon was. 
They had already passed through the other canyons 
above, and had suffered many hardships. They 
knew how wild and dangerous such places are, but 
whether they could ever get through this great and 
awful gorge they did not know. But they got into 
their boats, and started down the long passage. 
The sun shines down into this narrow gorge only 
for a short time each day. Most of the way the 
walls are too steep to climb. 

The boats shot swiftly down the river. Some- 
times they ran over wild rapids. The men had 
many narrow escapes. The boats bumped against 
the rocks, and some of the oars were broken. New 
oars had to be made, and, to do this, the men had 
to find logs that had drifted down the river. Some- 



i8o 

times Major Powell and his men had to have pitch 
to stop the leaks in their boats. To get this, they 
had to climb up thousands of feet of rock to where 
some little pine trees grew. 

They could not see far ahead, because the river 
was not straight, and the side walls of the narrow 
gorge shut out the view. Sometimes they would 
hear a loud roaring of water ahead. Then they 
knew they were coming to a waterfall. If there 
was any room to walk, they would carry and drag 
their boat round the falls. If there was no shelf or 
shore on which to carry the boats, they had to let 
them float down over the falls, the men on the rocks 
above holding ropes tied to the boats. Sometimes 
they could not even do this. Then they had to get 
into the boats and plunge over the falls among the 
rocks. They had hard work to keep off the rocks. 

More than once a boat got full of water. The 
men had to let the boat run till they got to a wider 
place, where they could get the water out. 

Their flour was spoiled by getting wet. Their 
bacon became bad. Much of their food was lost 
overboard. They usually slept out on the rocks 
by the side of the river. Sometimes they slept in 
caves. Once they sat up all night on a shelf of rock 
in a pouring rain. 

All day they had to work, to save their lives. At 



I8I 



night they had to sleep on cold rocks without 
blankets enough to keep them warm. The great 
rock walls on either side of them made an awfui 
prison. They could not tell how far they had gone, 
nor did they know just how far they had to go. 

At last the food ran short. The men were tired 
of musty flour. They had lost their baking powder, 
and they had to make heavy bread. They thought 
that even this bad food would give out before they 
could reach the end of the canyon. 

But one day they came to a little patch of earth 
by the side of the river. On this some corn was 
growing. The Indians living on the bare rocks 
above had come down by some steep path to plant 
this little cornfield. The corn was not yet large 
enough to eat. But among the corn grew some 
green squashes. 

Major Powell's men were too near starving not 
to take anything they could find to eat. They 
took some of the green squashes and put them 
into their boats. Then they ran on down the can- 
yon, out of the reach of any Indians. Here they 
stewed some of the squashes, and ate them. 

When they had been fifteen days in this great 
canyon, they had but a little flour and some dried 
apples left. They had now come to a place where 
one could climb up out of the gorge. But they 



l82 

did not know how far they were from the end. 
Three of the men here resolved to leave the 
party. They did not believe that there was any 
hope of running out of the canyon in the boats 
alive. They took their share of the food and 
some guns, and bade the others good-by. They 
climbed up out of the canyon, and were soon 
after killed by Indians. 

One of the boats was by this time nearly worn 
out by the rocks. As there were not enough men 
left to manage three boats, this one was left behind. 
Major Powell, with those of his men who were 
still with him, went on down the awful river. 
The very next day they ran suddenly out into 
an open space. They had at last got out of the 
Grand Canyon, which had held them prisoners 
for sixteen days. 

They went on down the river, and the next 
day after this they found some settlers drawing 
a seine or net to catch fish in the river. These 
settlers had heard that Major Powell and his men 
were lost, and they were keeping a lookout for 
any pieces of his boats that might float down 
from above. Food of many kinds was sent from 
the nearest settlement to feast the hungry men 
who had so bravely struggled through the Grand 
Canyon. 



i83 



THE-MAN-THAT-DRAWS-THE-HANDCART. 

George Northrup was but a boy of fifteen when 
his father died. Having nothing to keep him at 
home, he went to the Indian country, which at that 
time was in Minnesota. He had a boyish notion 
that he could go through to the Pacific Ocean by 
making his way from one tribe to another. When 
he was eighteen years old, a few years before the 
Civil War, he tried to make this journey. He 
loaded his provisions into a handcart, and took a 
big dog along for company. For thirty-six days 
he did not see anybody, or hear any voice but his 
own. Then he found paths made by Indian war 
parties. He knew, that, if one of these parties 
should find him, he would be killed. 

One morning he found all his food stolen from 
his handcart. Either Indians or wolves had taken 
it. He now saw how foolish his boyish plan had 
been. He turned back, and at last reached a trad- 
ing post, almost starved to death. For days he had 
had little to eat except such frogs as he could 
catch. 

After this the Indians always called him " The- 
man-that-draws-the-handcart." 

As he grew older, he became a famous trapper 



1 84 

and guide. He knew all about the habits of 
animals. He could shoot with a better aim than 
any Indian or any other white man on the frontier. 
He often walked eighty miles in a day across the 
prairie. He could manage the Indians as no other 
man could. 

This strange young man lived among rough and 
wicked men. But he never drank or swore, or did 
anything that anybody could have thought WTong, 
He never even smoked, as other men about him 
did, but he lived his own life in his own way. 
Everybody loved him for his gentleness. Every- 
body admired him for his courage and manliness. 
All the spare money he got he spent for good 
books. 

When winter time came, he would sometimes 
hire other trappers, who did not know the country 
so well as he did, to work for him. He would go 
away beyond the settlements and set up a camp. 
He would teach the other men how to trap. When 
spring came, he would bring many furs into the 
settlement. One winter he camped in the country 
of the Yankton Indians. He had six men with 
him. The Yanktons were wild Indians, and North- 
rup was in some danger. But he had a friend 
among the Indians, a chief called by a good long 
name, Taw-ton-wash-tah. 



i85 

But all the Yanktons were not friendly to the 
white men. There was one chief whose name was 
Old-man. He got together a party to go and rob 
Northrup and drive him away. Taw-ton-wash-tah 
tried to keep these Indians from going, but he 
could not do it. 

Northrup did not know that a party had been 
sent out against him. His men went on with their 
trapping, while George went hunting to get food 
for them. They had only a small bag of flour, and 
this they did not eat. They kept the flour for a 
time that might come in which they could not find 
any animals to kill for meat. 

One day George followed the tracks of an elk. 
He overtook it sij( miles from his camp. He crept 
up to it and shot it. Then he loaded his gun, so 
as to be ready for anything that might happen. 
While he was skinning the elk, he looked up and 
saw the heads of Indians coming up over a little 
hill. He quickly jumped into the bushes. He 
saw that there were thirteen Indians in the party. 
He put his hand on his bullet pouch, and knew by 
the feeling of it that there were fifteen bullets in 
the bag. " Every bullet must bring down an 
Indian," he said to himself. 

One of the Indians called out in his own language, 
" Is The-man-that-draws-the-handcart here } " 



i86 

George quickly replied in their language, " Stop ! 
If any man comes one step nearer, I will kill him. 
Tell me whether this is a war party or a hunting 
party." 

One of the Indians stepped out in front and fired 
off both barrels of his gun. This was a sign of 
friendship. 

Northrup did not think this offer of peace worth 
much; but, if he refused it, he would have to fight 
against thirteen Indians. He could only accept it 
by firing off both barrels of his gun. This would 
leave him with his gun unloaded. 

But he slipped the cap off one barrel of his gun. 
Then he fired the other barrel, and brought down 
the hammer of the one from which he had taken the 
cap, so as to make it seem that that barrel of his 
gun was empty. Then he slyly slipped the cap 
back on his gun, so as to have one barrel ready 
for use. 

He went with the Indians to their camp, where 
he was a kind of prisoner, but he managed to load 
the empty barrel of his gun by going behind a tree 
where the Indians could not see him. 

He knew that the Indians would try to get to his 
camp before he did. As his men did not know 
how to manage Indians, the Indians could steal 
everything in the camp. If they should take his 



i87 

provisions, George and his men might starve on 
the prairies, which were covered with snow. 

So George made up his mind that he must get 
to his camp before the Indians, or lose his life in 
trying. 

He said to the chief, " Old-man, I am going 
home." 

He did not wait for an answer, but started along 
the trail leading to his camp. He expected the 
Indians to shoot him, but they only fell into line 
and marched behind him. 

George knew that if the Indians got into the 
camp with him, they would find everything scattered 
about. Before he could get things together, they 
would steal most of them. So he tried once 
more what he could do by boldness. He turned 
and said to the chief, " My men are new men. 
They do not know Indians. If you should go 
in with me, they might shoot. It is better that I 
should go ia first, and tell them that you come 
as friends." 

Old-man said " Ho," which is the way that a 
Yankton has of saying " All right." 

Northrup went into the camp, and gathered every- 
thing together in one place, and told his men to 
keep watch over the things. The Indians staid 
about the camp two days, trying to get a chance to 



rob the white men, but Northrup kept his eye on 
them. Once he found one of his men without a 
gun. 

" Where is your gun ? " he said. 

" The Indians are sitting on it," said the man. 
" They will not give it up." 

George found several Indians sitting on the gun. 
He took hold of the gun and looked at the Indians. 
They all got up. It seemed that they could not 
help doing what he wanted them to do. Northrup 
gave the gun back to its owner, and told him not to 
let it go out of his hands again. 

George had a fine double-barreled rifle. An 
English gentleman whose guide he had been had 
sent him this gun from London. When he was in 
his tent one day, he heard the Indians on the out- 
side of it disputing who should have his gun. He 
knew by this that they meant to kill him. 

George patted his rifle as though it had been an 
old friend, and said, " Well, old gun, whoever gets 
you will have to be quick." After that his hand 
was always on his gun, and his eye was always on 
the Indians. 

He asked his men where the sack of flour was. 

" Old-man has it," said one of his men. 

To let the chief keep the flour was to run the 
risk of starving, but Northrup knew that if he took 



1 89 

it away there might be a battle. He stepped up to 
the chief and took the bag of flour from his side 
and started away without saying a word. 




"You shall go South 1 " 



" Man-that-draws-the-handcart," said the chief 
angrily, " bring back my flour." 



190 

George stopped, and opened his coat. He 
pointed toward his heart and said, — 

" Old-man, if you want to kill me, shoot me, but 
you shall not take away my flour and leave me to 
starve." 

" Very well," said the chief sternly, " then, Man- 
that-draws-the-handcart, you shall go south." 

In the language of these Indians, to go south 
means to die. They think the soul journeys to the 
southward after death. Old-man meant to say 
that Northrup should die. 

"Very well," said George, looking the Indian in 
the eye, " I will go south, then ; but if I go south, you 
shall go with me, and just as many more as I can 
take. Remember, Old-man, you must go south if 
I do." 

Old-man knew Northrup very well. He knew 
that if anybody tried to kill him, George's sure aim 
would be taken at Old-man first of all. George 
had also told all of his men to shoot the chief if 
there should be any trouble. 

After lingering for two days, the Indians stole a 
bag of chopped buffalo meat, or pemmican, and an 
old gun. With these they went off, and George 
hurried away to a better camping place, where they 
could not find him again. 



191 



THE LAZY, LUCKY INDIAN. 

Out in the country we now call North Dakota 
there once Hved an Indian known as " Lazy- 
man." When he was young, he had been lazy 
about hunting. When the other Indians had skins 
to sell, the lazy Indian had nothing. He grew poor. 
His blanket was ragged. His leggings were worn 
out. His wigwam was so wretched that all the 
tribe laughed at its tumble-down look. 

Every winter the tribe went off to the great 
plains to hunt buffalo. They took their little ponies 
along, to carry home what they got. They brought 
back the skins of the buffaloes and buffalo meat 
dried over a fire. They also brought back pemmi- 
can, which is made by chopping buffalo meat very 
fine, and mixing it with the tallow from the animal. 
Lazy-man was ashamed to go on the hunt. He 
had no ponies to carry the meat and the skins he 
might get. 

One winter, when the tribe went off on its regu- 
lar hunt. Lazy-man and his wife staid behind as 
usual. They sat lonesome in their teepee, as a 
wigwam is called in their language. The weather 
grew colder. It was hard to find anything to eat. 
The lake near them was frozen, so that they could 



192 

not fish. There were not many animals living in 
the country about The lazy Indian and his wife 
were nearly starved. 

The buffaloes had never come down to this lake 
shore. But one day the lazy Indian looked out and 




Buffaloes. 

saw a herd of them coming. They were running 
out on the point of land where his teepee stood. 
He knew that when they got to the ice on the lake 
they would turn back. 

" Quick, quick! " he called to his wife. The two 
ran right into the midst of the herd. It was a 
dangerous thing to do, but they were so hungry 



193 

and miserable that they did not mind the danger. 
By running into the herd they separated the buffa- 
loes out on the point from the rest. 

When the buffaloes on the point came to the ice, 
they paused and turned back. They were soon 
running in the other direction, but the lazy Indian 
and his wife faced the animals as they came. 
They waved their ragged blankets at the buffaloes. 
They shouted in Indian fashion, " Yow-wow, yow- 
wow, yow-wow ! " They ran to and fro, waving 
and shouting. 

Once more the buffaloes stopped and looked. 
Lazy-man and his wife now ran at them, throwing 
their blankets in the air, and yelling more wildly 
than ever. The scared buffaloes turned about 
again. They were so badly frightened this time 
that they ran out on the ice on the lake. 

The ice was as smooth as glass. The buffaloes 
could not stand up on it. One after another they 
slipped and fell. The lazy Indian was not lazy that 
day. He saw a chance to get out of his poverty. 
He ran about on the ice, killing the buffaloes. 

For many days he and his squaw worked. They 
skinned the buffaloes, and dried the skins. They 
prepared the stomachs of the buffaloes, and stuffed 
them with the chopped meat, making it look like 
great sausages as big as pillows. They put a few 

EGGL. AMER. LIFE — 1 3 



194 

cranberries in with the meat to give the pemmican 
a good taste. Then they poured the smoking fat of 
the buffalo into this great sausage. The fat filled 
up the small spaces. When it got cold, the pemmi- 
can sack was almost as hard as a stone. It could 
be cut only by chopping it with a tomahawk. 

At last spring came, and the tribe came home 
from the hunt. You may suppose that Lazy-man 
was proud that day. Instead of being the poor 
beggar whom everybody laughed at, he was now one 
of the rich men in the tribe. He had more buffalo 
robes and more pemmican than any other man in 
the village. He exchanged his buffalo robes for 
ponies. After that he always went on the hunt, and 
lived like the other Indians. He did not wish to 
sink into laziness and poverty again. 



PETER PETERSEN. 

A STORY OF THE MINNESOTA INDIAN WAR. 

Peter Petersen was a very little boy living in 
Minnesota. He lived on the very edge of the 
Indian country when the Indian War of 1862 
broke out. 

Settlers were killed in their cabins before they 
knew that a war had begun. As the news 



195 

spread, the people left their houses, and hurried 
into the large towns. Some of them saw their 
houses burning before they got out of sight. 
The roads were crowded with ox wagons full of 
women and children. 

Peter Petersen's father was a Norwegian settler. 
When the news of the Indian attack came, Peter's 
father hitched up his oxen, and put his wife and 
daughters and little Peter into the wagon. They 
drove the oxen hard, and got to Mankato in 
safety. 

The town was crowded with frightened people. 
Many were living in woodsheds and barns. In 
their hurry^ these country people had not brought 
food enough with them. Before long they began 
to suffer hunger. 

Peter Petersen's father thought of the potato 
field he had at home. If he could only go back 
to his house long enough to dig his potatoes, 
his family would have enough to eat. 

When he made up his mind to go, Peter wanted 
to go along with him. As there were now soldiers 
within a mile of his farm, Peter's father thought 
the Indians would not he so bold as to come there. 
So he and Peter went back to the little house. 

The next morning Peter's father w^nt out to 
dig potatoes. Peter, who was but five years old, 



196 

was asleep in his bed. He was awakened by the 
yells of Indians. He ran to the door just in time 
to see his father shot with an arrow. 

Little Peter ran like a frightened rabbit to the 
nearest bushes. The Indians chased him and 
caught him. They were amused to see him run, 
and they thought he would be a funny little 




plaything to have. So they just set him up on 
the back of a cow, and drove the cow ahead of 
them. They laughed to see Peter trying to keep 
his seat on the cow's back. 

The little boy lived among the Indians for 



197 

weeks. They did not give him anything to eat. 
When he came into their tents to get food, they 
would knock him down. But he would pick up 
something to eat at last, and then run away. 
When he could not get any food, he would go 
out amono; the cows the Indians had taken from 
the white people. Little as he was, he would 
manage to milk one of the cows. He had no 
other cup to catch the milk in but his mouth. 
Whenever any of the Indians threatened to kill 
him, he would run away and dodge about between 
the legs of the cows or among the horses, so as to 
get out of their way. Sometimes he was so much 
afraid that he slept out in the grass, in the dew 
or rain. 

After some weeks, Peter and the other captives 
were retaken by the white soldiers sent to fight 
the Indians. But the poor little boy could speak 
no language but Norwegian. He could not tell 
whose child he was, nor where he came from. His 
mother and sisters had left the dangerous country 
near the Indians. They had gone to Winona, a 
hundred and fifty miles away. One of his sisters 
heard somebody read in the paper that such a 
little boy had been taken from the Indians. The 
kind-hearted doctor in whose house she lived 
tried to find the boy, but nobody could tell what 



198 

had become of little Peter. His family at last 
gave up all hope of seeing him again. 

When Peter was taken by the soldiers, he had 
worn out all his clothes in traveling through the 
prairie grass. He had nothing on him but part of 
a shirt. The soldiers took an old suit of uniform 
and made him some clothes. He was soon dressed 
from top to toe in army blue. 

He was as much of a plaything for the soldiers as 
he had been for the Indians. They laughed at his 
pranks, as they might have done if he had been a 
monkey. He passed from one squad of soldiers to 
another. They fed him on hard-tack, and shared 
their blankets with him. He was the pet and play- 
thinof of them all. But after a while the Indians 
were driven away from the settlements, and the 
soldiers were ordered to the South, for it was in 
the time of the Civil War. 

The regiment that Peter happened to be with got 
on a steamboat, and Peter went aboard with them. 
The soldiers knew that if Peter should be taken to 
the South, he would be farther than ever away from 
his friends. So the soldiers made up their minds 
to put him ashore at Winona. It was the last place 
at which he would find Norwegian people. To put 
such a little fellow ashore in a large and busy place 
like this was a hard thing to do. Peter was hardly 



199 

more than a baby, and he could not speak English, 
He stood about as much chance of starving to death 
here as he had in the Indian camp. 

When the boat landed at Winona, the soldiers 
gave some money to one of the hotel porters, 
and told him to give the child something to eat, 
and send him out into the country where there were 
Norwegian people. But as soon as Peter had eaten 
the dinner they gave him at the hotel, he slipped 
away, and went back to the river. He expected to 
find his friends, the soldiers, waiting for him ; but the 
boat had gone. Peter was now in a strange city, 
without friends. Not without friends, either, for 
his sisters were in this same city. But he did not 
think any more of getting to his mother or his sisters. 
He was only thinking of the soldiers who had been 
so kind to him. 

When the next boat came down the river, Peter 
Petersen, in his little blue uniform, marched aboard. 
He thought he might overtake the soldiers, but 
the boatmen put him ashore again. He stood 
gazing after the boat, not knowing what to do or 
where to go. 

There stood on the bank that day a Norwegian. 
He was a guest at the Norwegian hotel in the 
town. He heard Peter say something in his 
own language, and he thought the boy must be 



200 

a son of the man who kept the hotel. So he said 
to him in Norwegian, " Let's go home." 

It had been a long time since Peter had heard his 
own language spoken. Nobody had said anything 
to him about home since he was taken away from 
his father's cabin by the Indians. The words sounded 
sweet to him. He followed the strano^e man. He 

o 

did not know where he was going, except that it was 
to some place called home. When he got to the 
hotel, he went in and sat down. He did not know 
what else to do. 

Presently the landlady came in. Seeing a strange 
little boy in army blue, she said, " Whose child are 
you.? 

Peter did not know whose child he was. Since 
the soldiers left him, he didn't seem to be anybody's 
child. As he did not answer, the landlady spoke 
to him rather sharply. 

" What do you want here, little boy ? " she said. 

" A drink of water," said Peter. 

A little boy nearly always wants a drink of 
water. 

" Go through into the kitchen there, and get a 
drink," said the landlady. 

Peter opened the door into the kitchen, and went 
through. In a moment two arms were about him. 
Peter knew what home meant then. His sister, 



20I 

Matilda, had recognized her lost brother Peter in 
the little soldier boy. The next day he was put 
into a wagon and sent out to Rushford, where his 
mother was living. The wanderings of the little 
captive were over. 



THE GREATEST OF TELESCOPE MAKERS. 

Three great inventors in this country were 
portrait painters. Fulton, the builder of steam- 
boats, was one of them ; Morse, who planned our 
first electric telegraph, was another; and Alvan 
Clark, who found out a way of making the largest 
and finest telescopes in the world, was another. 

Alvan Clark was the son of a farmer. When 
he was eighteen years old, he set to work to learn 
engraving and drawing. He had no teacher. 
After a while he began to draw portraits. Once 
he sent to Boston to get som.e brushes to paint 
with. When the brushes came, there was a piece 
of newspaper wrapped round them. In this bit of 
newspaper was an advertisement that engravers 
were wanted. He went to Boston, and found regu- 
lar work as an engraver. 

When he was not busy engraving, he was 
studying painting. After some years he became 



202 

a painter of portraits and miniatures. He lived 
at Cambridgeport, near Boston. 

While Mr. Clark was living at Cambridgeport, 
his son was at a boarding school. The young boy- 
had become interested in telescopes. He learned 
that there were two kinds of these instruments. 
One brought the stars near by showing them in 
a curved mirror. The other magnified by means 
of glasses that the light shone through. He had 
read that it was very hard to grind these glasses 
or lenses, as they are called, so that they would be 
correct. The telescope that used the mirror was 
not so good, but it was easier to make. So 
George Clark made up his mind that he would 
make a reflecting telescope; that is, one with a 
mirror in it. 

The mirror in such a telescope is made of 
polished metal. One day somebody broke the 
dinner bell at the boarding school. George Clark 
picked up the pieces of brass and took them 
home. 

These pieces of brass he put into a retort. A 
retort is a vessel that will bear great heat, and 
that is used for melting metals and other sub- 
stances. Young Clark put some tin into the 
retort with the brass. When the two metals were 
melted together, he poured the liquid into a 



203 

mold. When it became cold, it was a round flat 
piece. Such a piece is called a disc. 

Alvan Clark, the father, was a very ingenious 
man. He was a line marksman. One reason 
that he could shoot so well was that his eye was 
so true. Another was that he made his own rifles, 
and made them better than others. 

When Mr. Clark found his son trying to make 
a telescope out of the pieces of a bell, he became 
interested in telescopes. He studied all about 
them in order to help the boy with his work. He 
helped his son grind the metal disc into a concave 
mirror; that is, a mirror that is a little dish- 
shaped. With this they made a telescope with 
which they could see the rings of Saturn, and the 
little moons that revolve round Jupiter. 

After Mr. Clark had made this little telescope, 
he made larger reflecting telescopes that were very 
powerful. But he found that no telescope with a 
mirror in it could be very good. 

He now said to his son that they would make 
a refracting telescope; that is, one in which no 
mirror is used, but which brings the distant stars 
to the sight by the light shining through lenses. 
Lenses are large glasses that are regularly thicker 
in one part than in another. The glasses you 
see in spectacles are small lenses. 



204 

George Clark, the son, told his father that the 
books said that the grinding of such glasses was 
very difficult. Mr. Clark would not give it up 
because it was hard. He liked to do hard thinijs. 
He had already spent a great part of his money 
trying to make good reflecting telescopes; but 
he made up his mind to give them up, and try to 
make a better kind. He first looked through the 
great telescope just put up for Harvard College. 
The large lens in this telescope was not per- 
fect, and Mr. Clark's eye was so good that he 
could see what the small fault was. When he 
heard that twelve thousand dollars had been 
paid for this glass, he was encouraged to try 
to make such lenses. But there was nobody 
in this country who could show him how to 
do it. 

He first got some poor lenses out of old tele- 
scopes. These he worked over, and made them 
better. By this means he learned how to do it. 
Then he got some discs of glass and made some 
new lenses. These were the best ever made in this 
country. But he was not satisfied. He kept on 
making better and larger lenses. With one of 
these he discovered two double stars, as they are 
called. These had never been seen to be double 
before. 



205 



But nobody in America would believe that 
some of the best telescopes in the world were 
made in this country, for even the English 
astronomers had to get their telescopes in Ger- 
many. 

With one of his telescopes, larger than any he 
had made before, Mr. Clark now made a new discov- 
ery. He wrote about 
this to an English 
astronomer named 
Dawes. Mr. Dawes 
thought that a tele- 
scope that could make 
such a discovery would 
be worth having, so he 
bought the large lens 
out of this new tele- 
scope. Then he bought 
other glasses from Mr. 
Clark, and sold them 
again to other astron- 
omers. In this way 
Mr. Clark became 
famous in EnHand. 

Mr. Clark had given 
up painting. He put 
his whole heart into making the best telescopes in the 




Telescopic View of the Moon. 



2o6 

world. He went to England and saw the great 
astronomers, and looked through their telescopes. 

They were glad to see the man who made the 
best lenses in the world. His telescopes had 
helped them to find out many new things never 
seen before. By this time Mr. Clark was coming 
to be known in his own country. He got an order 
to make the largest glass ever made for a telescope 
in the whole world. This was to be put up in 
America. Nobody had ever dreamed of making 
so large and powerful a telescope. 

After a long time the great glass for this telescope 
was ground. Mr. Clark set it up to try it. His 
younger son, Alvan, who was helping him, turned 
the telescope so as to look at the bright star Sirius. 
As soon as he' had looked, he cried out in surprise, 
" Why, father, the star has a companion!" Sirius 
is a sun. It has a satellite, a dark star like our 
world revolving round it. Nobody had ever been 
able to see this dark star before. But this telescope 
was stronger than any that had ever been pointed 
at the sky. 

Mr. Clark now looked through the tube himself. 
Sure enough, there was the companion of Sirius, 
never seen before by anybody on the earth. The 
large glass which had been a year in making 
had won its first victory. But Mr. Clark made 



207 

much larger glasses even than that one. He had 
nobody to show him how. But by patient thought 
and hard work he had made the greatest telescopes 
in the world. Medals and other honors were sent 
to him from many countries. 



ADVENTURES IN ALASKA. 




Scene in Alaska. 

The Copper River of Alaska flows from north 
to south into the ocean. The Yukon River, which 
is farther north, runs from the east toward the west. 
It was known that the waters of these two rivers 
must be near together at the place from which they 
started in the mountains, but it was not known 



208 

whether anybody could pass from the valley of the 
Copper River over the mountains into the valley of 
the Yukon. A scouting party was sent to find out 
whether the crossing from one river to the other 
could be made. This party returned, saying that 
it was impossible to pass from the Copper River 
to the Yukon, because the mountains were too high 
and steep. 

In 1885 General Miles sent Lieutenant Allen 
to try to find a pass from the valley of the Copper 
River to that of the Yukon. Lieutenant Allen 
was a very determined man. He set out with the 
resolution to find some way of crossing the moun- 
tains, however much labor and suffering it might 
cost. He took two soldiers, and had two other 
white men with him, and he got Indians to go 
with him from place to place as he could. The 
party started up the Copper River in March. 
From the first their sufferings were very great. 
They had to travel day after day, and sleep night 
after night, with their clothes wet to the skin. 
They soon found that they could not take their 
canoe, on account of the ice. They had to leave 
most of their provisions, because they could not 
carry them. Some nights they sat up all night 
in the rain. 

But when they got to a country where it was 



209 

not raining all the time, they had a way of keeping 
dry at night. They had brought along sleeping 
bags. These were made of waterproof linen. 
Each bag was a little longer than a man. It had 
draw strings at the top. They put a folded blanket 
inside, and then pushed the blanket down with 
their feet so that it would wrap about them and 
keep them warm. Then they drew the strings 
about the top. This kept the body dry. 

They suffered a great deal from hunger. There 
were very few animals in the country where they 
were, and most of the Indians they found had but 
little to eat. Lieutenant Allen's party were some- 
times glad to pick up scraps of decayed meat or 
broken bones about an Indian camp to make a 
meal on. Much of the meat and fish they had to 
eat was badly spoiled. They grew so weak that 
it was hard for them to climb up a hill, carrying 
their guns and their food. They sometimes reeled 
like drunken men when they walked. 

They would have perished from hunger if they 
had not had a man with them who knew how 
to stop the rabbits when they were running. This 
man could make a little cry just like a rabbit's cry. 
Whenever a rabbit heard this sound, he would stop 
and look round for a moment. Then the hunter 
would have a chance to shoot him. 

EGGL. AUKK. LIFE — I4 



2IO 

But these rabbits were so small and so lean that 
it took four or five of them to make a meal for a 
man. At one place the party were so hungry that 
an Indian who was with them fainted away. When 
they reached a house soon after, where there lived 
a chief named Nicolai, they found a five-gallon 
kettle full of meat boiling on the fire» They drank 
large quantities of the broth, and ate about five 
pounds of meat apiece. Much of this meat was 
pure tallow from the moose. They all fell asleep 
immediately after eating. When they awaked, they 
were almost as hungry as before. 

At last they reached the head waters of the 
Copper River. Here they found the hungry In- 
dians waiting for the salmon to come up from the 
sea, as they do every year. As long as the salmon 
are in the river, the Indians have plenty to eat. So 
they kept dipping their net, hoping to catch some 
salmon. At last one little salmon was caught. It 
was a thin, white-looking little fish. The Indians 
now knew that in two or three days they would have 
plenty. They hung their little fish on a spruce 
bough, and they kept visiting it, singing to it with 
delio-ht. The white men did not wait for the sal- 
mon to arrive. 

From this place they left the Copper River, and 
started to cross the mountains. This was the pass 



211 



through which it was said that 
nobody could go. Lieutenant 
Allen and his men 
obliged to carry pro- 
visions with 



them. 
of the 




Part 
pro- 



A Dog Pack Train. 



Visions 
they carried them- 
selves : the rest 
they packed on 
dogs. This is a 
way of carrying things used only in Alaska. A 
pack is strapped on a dog's back just as though 
he were a mule, and with this the little dog goes 
on a long journey through the mountains. 

The party started over the mountains in June. 
At this season of the year in that country the 
sun shines almost all night, and it* is never dark. 
Lieutenant Allen's party traveled either by day 
or by night, as they pleased, as there was always 
light enough. 

When they got to the foot of the last mountains 
they had to climb, they found a little lake. Here 



212 

they got some fish to eat, but the salmon had not 
come yet They hired some Indians to go with 
them, and divided the weight of everything into 
packs. Every man carried a pack, and every dog 
carried as much as he could bear. As they climbed 
the mountains, they could look back over the beauti- 
ful valley of the Copper River. Still hungry and 
nearly tired out, they pushed on until they camped 
by a brook in the mountains. 

Here they found that the salmon had come up 
the Copper River from the sea, and had run up 
this brook and overtaken them. The fish were 
crowding up the brook to get to a little lake at 
the head of it, where they would lay their eggs. 
In some places there was so little water in the 
stream that the fish had to get over the shallow 
places by lying on their sides. In doing this, 
some of them threw themselves out of the water 
on the land. The hungry men could catch them 
easily, and they now had all they wanted to 
eat. One of the party ate three large salmon, 
heads and all, for his supper. As the sun shines 
almost all the time in the Arctic regions, in the 
summer, the days become very hot. On the last 
day of Lieutenant Allen's journey up the moun- 
tains the heat was so great that the party did not 
start until five o'clock in the afternoon. They 



213 

reached the top of the mountains that divided 
the two rivers at half-past one o'clock that night. 
Though it was what we should call the middle 
of the night, it was not dark. 

The party were now nearly five thousand feet 
higher than the sea. At half-past one in the 
morning the sun was just rising. It rose almost 
in the north. Behind them the men could still 
see the valley of the Copper River. Before them 
lay the valley of one of the branches of the Yukon, 
with twenty beautiful lakes and a range of moun- 
tains in sight. White and yellow buttercups were 
blooming about them, though the snow was within 
a few feet. No white man had ever looked on this 
grand scene before. The men forgot their hunger 
and their weariness. They had done what hardly 
anybody thought could be done. 

A mile further on they stopped to build a fire, 
and here they cooked the last bit of extract of beef 
that they had with them. It was the end of all the 
provisions they had carried. Having gone to bed 
at two or three o'clock in the morning, they did not 
start again until two in the afternoon ; for day and 
night were all one to them, except that the light 
nights were cooler and pleasanter to travel in than 
the days. 

They were told by the Indians that by marching 



214 

all that night they could reach an Indian settle- 
ment, and, as they had no food, they determined 
to do this. In this whole day's march they killed 
but one little rabbit, which was all they had for nine 
starving men to eat. But at three o'clock in fhe 
morning of the next day the tired and hungry men 
dragged themselves into the little Indian village. 
Guns were fired to welcome them. 

The fish were coming up the river. A kind of 
platform had been built over the water. On this 
platform the Indians stood one at a time, and 
dipped a net into the water for fish. All day and 
all night somebody was dipping the net. 

The Indians had never seen a white man before. 
They were very much amused to see white faces, 
and one of the white men who had red hair was 
a wonder to them. 

Allen and his men got food here. Then they 
built a skin canoe, and started down the river. 
After many more hardships and dangers, they 
reached the ocean, and then took ship for Cali- 
fornia. 



Historical Readings for the Young 



EGGLESTON'S STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS FOR LITTLt 

AMERICANS 

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EGGLESTON'S STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE 
Cloth, i2mo. 214 pages. Illustrated . . . .50 cents 
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are interspersed sketches of the homes and firesides, the dress and 
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section of our country and every period of its history. 



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GUERBER'S STORY OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES 

By H. A. GuERBER, Author of " Myths of Greece and 
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Cloth, i2mo, 242 pages. With maps and illustrations . 65 cents 
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reader or as an elementary text-book on this period of American history. 

GUERBER'S STORY OF THE ENGLISH 

Cloth, i2mo, 256 pages. With maps and illustrations . 65 cents 
This book is designed to serve the double purpose of a Supple- 
mentary Reader for Grammar grades and of an elementary text-book in 
English History. In simple language the author describes in the form 
of attractive stories and anecdotes, the leading events, characters, and 
places in English History. The dress and artistic features of the book 
are in keeping with its contents. The large colored maps of Great 
Britain and Ireland, of France, and of India will be found convenient 
for tracing the course of English History and the vast extent of the 
British colonies and possessions in the world. 



Copies 0/ any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address 
on receipt of the price. 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati • Chicago 

(18) 



Guerber's Historical Readers 

FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING 



GUERBER'S STORY OF THE GREEKS 

By H. A. GUERBER, Author of "Myths of Greece and 
Rome," "Myths of Northern Lands," "Legends of the 
Middle Ages," etc. 

Cloth, i2mo, 288 pages. Illustrated .... 60 cents 
This is an elementary history of Greece, from its mythological 
beginning down to the time when it became a Roman province. The 
events are recounted, so far as possible, in the form of stories about 
particular persons and events. The history of Greece readily lends 
itself to such treatment, and is naturally very interesting to children. 
The book will give pupils an attractive idea of history and an incentive 
to further reading. 

GUERBER'S STORY OF THE ROMANS 

Cloth, i2mo, 2S8 pages. Illustrated .... 60 cents 
This book gives, in the form of interesting stories, striking and 
life-like pictures of Roman life and history which cannot but prove 
attractive to young readers. Recognizing that children are more easily 
interested in the sayings and doings of people than in the bare facts of 
dynastic and military history, the author has skillfully grouped around 
the famous characters of classical history the great events with which 
their names will forever stand connected. 

GUERBER'S STORY OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE 

Cloth, i2mo, 240 pages. Illustrated .... 60 cents 
In this volume the story of the Chosen People or Children of 
Israel is told in the same objective manner and in the same simple style 
as in the story of the Greeks and in that of the Romans by the same 
author. As in those companion volumes, the great characters and events 
of scripture history are described in such a way as to make them accept- 
able to all classes of readers. 



Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on 
receipt of the price. 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 



McMaster's United States Histories 

By JOHN BACH McMASTER 
Professor of American History in the University of Pennsylvania. 



PRIMARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Cloth, i2mo, 

254 pages. With maps and illustrations .... $0.60 

SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Half leatlier, 

i2mo, 519 pages. With maps and illustrations . . . 1.00 

This series is marked by many original and superior features which 
will commend it alike to teachers, students, and general readers. The 
narratives form a word-picture of the great events and scenes of American 
history, told in such a way as to awaken enthusiasm in the study and 
make an indelible impression on the mind. 

The Primary History contains work for one school year, and gives 
a good general knowledge of so much of our history as every American 
should learn; while for those who are to pursue the study further, 
it will lay a thorough foundation for subsequent work. It is short, and 
leaves unnoticed such questions as are beyond the understanding of 
children; in a simple and interesting style it affords a vigorous narrative 
of events and an accurate portrayal of the daily life and customs of the 
different periods; and it is well proportioned, touching on all matters of 
real importance for the elementary study of the founding and building of 
our country. Our history is grouped about a few central ideas, which 
are easily comprehended by children. The illustrations, which are 
numerous and attractive, are historically authentic, and show well-known 
scenes and incidents and the progress of civilization. The maps are 
remarkably clear and well executed, and give the location of every 
important place mentioned in the text. 

In the School History from the beginning the attention of the 
student is directed to causes and results, and he is thus encouraged to 
follow the best methods of studying history as a connected growth of 
ideas and institutions, and not a bare compendium of facts and dates. 
Special prominence is given to the social, industrial, and economic 
development of the country, to the domestic life and institutions of the 
people, and to such topics as the growth of inventions, the highways of 
travel and commerce, and the progress of the people in art, science, and 
literature. Tlie numerous maps give vivid impressions of the early 
voyages, explorations, and settlements, of the chief military campaigns, 
of the territorial growth of the country, and of its population at different 
periods, while the pictures on almost every page illustrate different 
phases in the civil and domestic life of the people. 



Copies will be sent, prepaid, on receipt of the price by the Publishers : 

American Book Company 

New York < Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 

(1 16) 



Carpenter's Geographical Readers 

By Frank G. Carpenter 

North America. Cloth, lamo, 352 pages . . 60 cents 

South America. Cloth, i2mo, 352 pages . . 60 cents 

Asia. Cloth, i2mo, 304 pages . . . .60 cents 

Europe. Cloth, i2mo, 456 pages . . .70 cents 

Austraha and Islands of the Sea {^In preparation). 

These new Geographical Readers are by far Ihe most 
attractive and instructive books of their kind ever pub- 
lished. They are not mere compilations of other books 
or stories of imaginary travels, but they are the results of 
the author's actual journeys through the different coun- 
tries, with personal observations of their native peoples, 
just as they are found to-day in their homes and at their 
work. These journeys and visits are described in such 
simple and engaging manner as to make the books as 
entertaining as stories, while conveying in this attractive 
way, useful knowledge and information. While they are 
written in easy familiar style, and in language not above 
the comprehension of children, they are strictly accurate 
in every detail and statement. 

The books are well supplied with colored maps and 
illustrations, the latter mostly reproductions from original 
photographs taken by the author on the ground. They 
combine studies in geography with stories of travel and 
observation in a manner at once attractive and instructive. 
Their use in connection with the regular text-books on 
geography and history will impart a fresh and living 
interest to their lessons. 



Copies of Carpenter s Geographical Readers will be sent, prepaid, to any 
address on receipt of the price by the Publishers : 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 

(is) 



Pupils' Outline Studies 



• HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

BY 

Francis H. White, A.M. 
Paper, Square Octavo, 128 pages .... Price 30 cents 



This is a book of Outline Studies, Maps, and Blanks, 
intended for use in connection with the study of United 
States History. It contains an original and systematic 
combination of devices consisting of outline maps, graphic 
charts, and blanks for historical tables and summaries, for 
the reproduction of pictures, for biographical sketches, for 
studies in civil government, etc. It also contains valuable 
suggestions to teachers and pupils, and carefully selected 
lists of historical books and authorities for collateral 
reading and reference. 

Its use will encourage the pupil to observe closely, to 
select the leading and salient facts of history, to classify his 
knowledge, to investigate for himself, and to carry his inves- 
tigations up to recognized authorities and even to original 
sources. It also furnishes opportunity and material for the 
best exercises and training in English Composition. 

The book is conveniently arranged for either class or 
individual instruction and may be used in connection with 
any text-book on United States History. 



Copies 'cvill be sent, prepaid, on receipt of the price by the Publishers: 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 

(117) 



State and Local History 



The public schools should be nurseries of civic virtue. 
One of their high aims should be to train pupils to 
intelligent and virtuous citizenship. To secure this end 
the young should be led to feel an interest in their State 
and nation. To promote the study of local history and to 
acquaint pupils with the leading events of the State in 
which they live, the following books are offered to schools 
and teachers : 



BROOKS'S (E. S.) STORIES OF THE OLD BAY STATE 
COOKE'S (J. E.) STORIES OF THE CLD DOMINION 
HARRIS'S (J. C.) STORIES OF GEORGIA 
HOWELLS'S (W. D.) STORIES OF OHIO 
KINKEAD'S(E. S.) HISTORY OF KENTUCKY 
McGEE'S (G. R.) HISTORY OF TENNESSEE 
MUSiCK'S (J. R.) STORIES OF MISSOURI 
RHOADES'S (L. I.) STORY OF PHILADELPHIA 
SMITHEY'S (R. B.) HISTORY OF VIRGINIA . 
STOCKTON'S (FRANK R.) STORIES OF NEW JERSEY 
SWETT'S (SOPHIE) STORIES OF MAINE 
THOMPSON'S (MAURICE) STOR.ES OF INDIANA . 
THWAITES'S (R. G.) STORIES OF THE BADGER STATE 
TODD'S (C. B) HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
WALTON (J. S.) AND BRUMBAUGH'S (M. G.) STORIES OF 
PENNSYLVANIA .... 



$0.60 
.60 
.60 
.60 
.75 
.75 
.60 
.85 
.75 
.60 
.60 
.60 
.60 
.75 



.60 



Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on 
on receipt of the price by the Publishers : 



New York 

(I20) 



American Book Company 

♦ Cincinnati • 



Chicago 



Maxwell's English Course 

By WILLIAM II. MAXWELL, M.A., Ph.l). 
Superintendent of Schools, City of New York. 

FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH 

For use in P^lementary Grades . . . . .40 cents 

INTRODUCTORY LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR 

For use in Intermediate and Grammar Grades . .40 cents 
(These two books constitute a complete graded course in English 
for Elementary and (jrammar Grades.) 



ADVANCED LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR 

l'"or Hio-her Grammar Classes and Ilitih Schools . . 60 cents 



The "First Book in English" combines lessons, prac- 
tice, and instruction in the elementary principles in the 
English language, in such a rational and practical way as 
to make a text-book for beginners in language study, which 
avoids the platitudes of modern "language lessons " on one 
hand, and the difficulties of "technical " grammar on the 
other. 

The "Introductory Lessons" presents as much of the 
science of grammar with its applications as children can 
understand and appreciate, before taking up an advanced 
course in English. The book contains in a compact form 
a well-graded and perspicuous treatment of all the subjects 
usually taught in English Grammar. It omits no essen- 
tial principle or definition or example, and is sufficiently 
complete to meet all the requirements of the usual course 
of study of Intermediate or Grammar Schools. 

The "Advanced Lessons in English Grammar" em- 
braces all the theory and all \\\e. practice that are necessary 
during the last two years of a grammar-school or through- 
out a high school course. It is intended to serve two 
purposes : First, that of a text-book, supplying the 
principles and rules of the science as well as their applica- 
tion in copious exercises; Second, a l>ook of reference, to 
be used whenever difficulties are presented either in the 
student's own compositions or in literature that is sub- 
jected to critical study. 

Copies sent to any address, prepaid^ on receipt of price, 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 

(78) 



Milne's Arithmetics 

By WILLIAM J. MILNE, Ph.D., LL.D. 
President of the New York State Normal College, Albany, New York 



Mental Arithmetic . . 35 cents 

Elements of Arithmetic ....... 30 cents 

Standard Arithmetic 65 cents 



It is not enough for pupils to understand arithmetical 
processes; they must be able to use them accurately and 
i-apidly. It is evident, therefore, that the best text-books 
in arithmetic are those which give the pupil a thorough and 
practical knowledge of the study, and, following this, 
readiness in applying this knowledge to the common affairs 
of everyday life. 

Milne's Arithmetics meet all these conditions and 
requirements in a natural^ logical, and practical manner. 

A Complete Series. The first book is sufficiently 
elementary for the lowest classes requiring a text-book; 
the large book is comprehensive enough to meet the de- 
mands of common schools and also all higher classes in 
which arithmetic is studied. There is no gulf between the 
two books. Each book is perfectly adapted to the oilier: the 
"Elements" giving adequate preparation for the 
"Standard "; and the latter continuing, without needless 
repetition, the work begun in the "Elements." 

The Mental Arithmetic may be used as an independent 
book or in connection with the series, as may be desired. 

A Successful Series Their signal and unparalleled 
success is best shown by the fact that Milne's Arith- 
metics are already Jiiore ividely and largely used thati all 
other new arithmetics combined. 



Copies sent, pri'paid, on receipt of price. 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 

(56) 



Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship 



The system of writing represented in these new copy 
books combines all the advantages of the vertical with the 
speed and beauty of regular slant writing. 

It is well known that an extreme slant tends to angu- 
larity, while vertical writing is usually slow and tends to 
an unsightly back-hand or irregular slant. If left to 
themselves, without specific directions, children naturally 
fall into a certain slant in writing, — intermediate between 
vertical and slant writing. This natural slant has been 
adopted as the standard in these copy books. 

Forms of Letters. — Natural Slant copies are de- 
signed to be written^ 7iot printed. They have the simplicity 
and the full, round, open style of the best vertical forms, 
but avoid some of the extremes and eccentricities that 
have characterized that style of writing. In every instance 
the form of capital employed has been selected, first, 
because of its legibility; second, because of its ease of 
execution; and third, because of its graceful form. Every 
copy is sensible and significant, and as nearly as possible the 
subject matter relates to topics which interest the pupils 
of the grades for which the respective books are intended. 
In otlier words, the writing exercises are made to correlate 
with the other branches of study pursued in the schools. 

The Series includes Books A, B, C, and D, small size, 
illustrated, to be written with pen or pencil, and Books i to 8, 
full size, the first two books illustrated. A set of penman- 
sliip Wall Charts in four sheets is published to accom- 
pany this series of copy books. 

BOOKS A, B, C, and D, per dozen $0.60 

BOOKS 1 to 8, per dozen 75 

CHARTS, per set of four sheets ...... 1 50 



Copies sent to any address, prepaid, on receipt of price. 

American Book Company 

New York • Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 



t 



JUL 6 1904 



BRENTANO'S 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



mllMlllljllll 
01 1 460 793 9 § 



^IK 




